Snow and Ice, Ice, Baby

I hate to complain about the weather. OK, that's just not true. That's like Kanye saying he hates to complain about who gets a music award. Before a marathon, I love to worry and complain about the weather. But that's normal. Generally speaking, weather just isn't an issue for me when it comes to training.

Except for snow. Snow makes it harder to run (I can deal with that) and it's waay more dangerous. For example, the recent snowpocolypse left the roads so icy, icy, icy that the other morning I managed to fall flat on my back on Broadway Street (you know, "the-Asheville-Half-evil-hill-on-Broadway" Broadway Street?). Pride aside, I remembered thinking as I landed, "Hey! That really didn't even hurt!" But then I started sliding. On my back. Like some errant Ninja Turtle. Straight in to traffic. That freaked me the F out. I've been respecting the weather ever since.

Until yesterday.

What can I say? I want what I want when I want it, and yesterday I wanted to run on a trail. A nice leisurely 9 mile loop from Trace Ridge. Here's how that worked out for me:

I gave up completing the loop as planned as the snow became progressively deeper on the shaded part of the mountain. I ended up with an enjoyable 6-mile out and back, though.

I noticed also that my irrational fear of being eaten by wildlife while trail running is still alive and well. I know that statistically speaking, there's a much higher chance of me getting hurt/ killed while running on the roads than while trail running. But still, I never fail to have a moment during a trail run where I imagine a bear or a bobcat (OK, that one's left over from Santa Monica) or a wild boar hunting me down and eating me. Switches to Wild Safari of the Animal Kingdom/ William Shatner voice:"Her heart starts to pound, blood pumping to every limb in the ancient pursuit of fight or flight. She is wild with panic, nerve endings alive with the fight or flight impulse. She faces her predator, her last thought for the son she will leave behind to fend for himself."

Luckily, the wildlife du jur was a lone creepy possum who showed no fear whatsoever at my running right by him (hence the creepy part). Also lucky is the fact we don't get much snow here in Asheville. You probably won't hear another one of these stories for a long, long time. You can thank me later.

Happy New Year to all.

[ORN: Obligatory Running Note] 8 miles today. 2 miles warm up and cool down. 3 x 1 mile at Half Marathon pace with a steady 1/2 mile in between. This is the first "real" workout I've done since the marathon. I wasn't sure how I would feel. It wasn't until rep #3 that I felt like I knew what HM pace was. It's so weird how fast your body forgets race pace.