2 Miles in the Albany Pine Bush
Thursday, February 15, 2007
"Run" is a bit misleading... though I did run down 4 hills. But with deep, mostly unbroken snow, I spent most of the 75 minutes hiking... sometimes faster, sometimes slower, generally breathing hard. I thought a lot about something USSSA Coach Steve Ilg says during the intro to his snowshoeing basics DVD - that snowshoeing is the only activity that can get your heart rate so high while you move so slowly!
I was reminded repeatedly today of the article Making Lemonade in a Michigan Winter by Rick Murray about snowshoe running:
One evening in early December I decided to go for a 6-mile snowshoe run. It had been snowing the last few days, and it was starting to build up. The woods were absolutely beautiful. I eagerly strapped on my snowshoes, ready to start my run. It was early in training, and this was to be an easy-HR run. Oakley (Rick's dog) & I headed out the door. "Wow, this is deep." I thought.. I went about 200 yards and my heart rate was already at 85% of max with no sign of falling. "This was not supposed to be an interval workout", I thought, but there was no "easy running". Just walking in the heavy, deep snow put my heart rate at 70%.After the time I spent today plowing through loose, deep snow - a snowmobile-packed trail would have been welcome! Hopefully the trails this weekend will be somewhat packed (and by more than just the many runners who go over them before I do) or I'm looking at two long, slow 5 mile snowshoe races...
I was still determined to get this workout in, and running the snow-covered roads at night was not an option. I shuffled my way back to the house. The snowmobile was sitting in the garage ready to go. I decided I would take the machine out and pre-pack my 6-mile trail loop. "Shouldn’t take too long", I thought. By my figuring, if it took 45-50 minutes to run this loop, it should only take 15-20 minutes to pre-ride it and pack it down. Wrong!
After the getting the machine stuck and buried for the third and fourth time, I was really wishing that I had changed out of my tights and thin poly shirt into something a bit more substantial. I got stuck on every hill I tried to ride up. Finally, after an hour and a half of fighting the deep snow, and digging out the machine, I had the whole trail packed down. I returned home and changed into some dry running clothes. I strapped the snowshoes back on and Oakley and I headed out for an excellent nighttime run.
At the same time, it was a gorgeous sunny day - I wish I'd stopped at Wal-mart for a camera beforehand, because it would have been nice to get some pictures of the snow-covered woods and fields. While XC skiing might have been a bit easier to do today, I definitely gave my quads a workout and got to spend some time in the beautiful outdoors. (And that definitely beats the mess that passes for the streets of Albany right now! Hopefully the city will get its act together soon and start removing the snow instead of just pushing it around... and hopefully people will start being a little less stupid and stop doing things like burying the sidewalks as they dig out spaces for their cars!)
Note to self: the next time snow is forecast, lay off the snow dances!
JMH
