the Way of the Turtle

BREAK OUT THE SCREW SHOES!
5 Mile Run in the Albany Pine Bush
Thursday, January 12, 2012

Not enough snow for snowshoeing, but too much for my trail shoes - time for the screw shoes. Actually, I spent a good deal of time wondering if I should have worn my snowshoes after all - with only a couple inches of snow I didn't need flotation, but the traction would have been nice.

Ended up at Blueberry Hill, which is one of the sections where they've recently rerouted the trails. I had walked some of the new trails in the dark, so it was good to get a chance to see them in the daylight. The main drawback to the new trails is they run close to the edges of the preserve, so while one side has a view of the woods or the meadows, the other tends to be backyards and the office complex that borders this part of the preserve. Still, I wish I'd brought along my waterproof Kodak - while the picture quality isn't great, the preserve was quite scenic with a layer of snow covering much of the ground.

The resistance provided by even a couple of inches of snow made for tough going, especially since my legs were a bit tired from my short run last night (and possibly from almost two weeks of no running... sigh.) I had originally thought to run an extra loop for another mile or more but abandoned that idea after slipping and slogging through the very wet snow. Kind of makes me glad I didn't end up running the Squirrely Six in the snow back at the end of October...

JMH