Thanksgiving Training

This week I pressed forward with training as usual, even on Thanksgiving Day. I did have to modify my cross-training activities to fit with the holiday, however. My usual spin and yoga classes were only held on Monday and Wednesday, not Friday, so I improvised my own yoga Friday morning, but basically had a rest day. Thursday I attended the Timp Tri Club spin and a movie for two hours before my regular run, which was in daylight (but still quite cold).

[Left: frozen stream crossing] This week was cold! Tuesday was around freezing, and Thursday was in the high 20's (although the sun did warm it up some). I was able to do a decent time Tuesday, but did my best post-recovery run on Thursday (33:39 for 4 miles, or a 8:25 min/mile average).

Saturday was a great run. It was in the 20's in the shade when I started up, and I began to question if I had sufficiently layered myself, but as soon as I was in the sun, it was perfect. I wore two pairs of socks (Injinjis covered by SmartWool) and that seemed to keep the blisters from coming on, however my toes felt a little cramped (socks too tight?). I ran up Grove Creek to Indian Springs and back, and then did it again. A single loop is 6 miles and 2400 feet elevation, so doubling it gave me a 12 mile and 4800 feet elevation workout. [Right: elevation vs. heart rate over time] It took me 1:30 to do the first loop, I spent 2 minutes in the parking lot refueling (mini-aid station in my car), and took 1:36 to do the second loop. Above the bridge (mile 2) there are several stream crossings, and they were mostly frozen over. When I got to the higher meadows, they were covered with a layer of frost. It was still pretty cold on the second loop, but was warming up. My conditioning tights are still holding up from last winter, so I'm still using those.