Trails are crap for running...

Sunday, February 13, 2011


I’d been getting some grief about the fact that I still had the ‘Manger’ figures in front of the house. “Christmas has been over for a bit now, John, do you suppose you could put them away?” Holly had asked me the previous day. Well…I had a few excuses. It was cold…I needed to leave them out until the Epiphany (twelve days after Christmas)…there was too much ice and snow in front of them…I was terribly busy and didn’t have the ten minutes to spare…that kind of crap…and she wasn’t buying any of it.

So…after church and still in my church clothes, I began chopping away at the ice on the sidewalk leading to our front door and the Manger figurines in front of the picture window. It took about a half hour and once I had the task complete, changed into my running clothes for trip to the Metropark. Once there, I figured it was a perfect day for a 40-minute run which I’d back up with an hour ride. We were going to be eating chicken and dumplings for dinner…mega calories again…and I needed to burn a couple of thousand in preparation. I started the run in a short-sleeved t-shirt and shorts and my bandana on my head. It was in the 40’s and I was more than comfortable. The trails were feeling the warmth as well, as I quickly discovered. I’d run about 5 minutes, breaking through the packed snow with about every third step…getting completely frustrated. This was just not going to work, so I headed for the car having logged only 7 minutes of running. The trails would be like this until they were completely melted, and that was bad news for me. I was thinking as I drove home that I’d have to try a short run on the paved, all-purpose trail tomorrow. I’ve been having bad experiences with injuries every time I try this, but I don’t want to give up running for a week while the melting continues.

I put in an hour on the bike and was done just in time to help with the final preparations for company and dumplings. I ate two helpings, had three chicken thighs and some cookies for dessert. Considering all that was served and eaten over the weekend…I think doubling up on the workouts and activity may have offset all the damage. It was close and I gave it my best shot…

Bike duration: 60 minutes. Run duration: 7 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 130 biking. 140 running.
Calories burned during workout: 900 biking. 110 running.