Boston training week 2: the one with the huge and epic rain deluge

The weather around here is pretty drunk.

The week started out as one would expect for January, Monday was decent enough coming in at 15 degrees or so. Later in the week, the temps spiked to 50 and the world turned to slime!

On Monday, I was looking for an easy run, and since easy runs are boring I decided to go on a run/hike/snow leap adventure. This was a really good choice (and was still easy.) I ran to hawk mountain and broke a trail to the top, sometimes in knee deep snow which required some bounding. I saw a lot of tracks, but zero animals. On the way back down the hill I ran super fast, leaping into the deep snow and pretending that I was skiing or something. It was the kind of fun that you just can't have unless you commit to a properly good mountain adventure!
I do need some gaiters though. I collected quite a bit of snow!

We had some really good weather mid week. As mentioned, the temps got up to 50 at one point, which had all of us in short sleeves and sunglasses!

Unfortunately, on the day I had a workout planned it was really dark by the time I finished up work, so to the treadmill I went. I completed 6x800 @6:59. I can't remember the last time I did repeats on the treadmill at a sub 7 pace. Oh don't worry, it was not an easy jog by any means! But, I completed the workout with no issues and felt good about it.
I don't always mind running in the dark, in fact, it is a fairly regular part of my fall running. I tend to think that when there is a ton of snow it isn't the greatest idea, and it is especially hard to run decent speed work when trying to avoid ice and death in the dark.
The good news, we have gained close to 20 minutes of evening daylight. YAY!

I took an extra rest day on Friday. I wasn't feeling my best, which is unusual for me, but since I was really dragging I decided that catching up on household chores after work was a better use of my time (it ended up being PMS a couple days early- I'm not really a big "PMS" person (#soblessed) so when it sneaks up on me I rarely know what I am dealing with. (and yes, I am lucky.)
Also, on Friday it was pouring BUCKETS AND BUCKETS AND BUCKETS OF RAIN. Yeah, we got well over 2 inches, most of the snow melted, things flooded (nothing here thank heavens) and it was just a terrific mess!

Raining. Snow melting. 

Saturday was long run/pub run day, and I was doubly lucky. It was a WHOPPING 26 degrees, which was a god damned Christmas miracle. AND Eric continued the streak of pub runs, and came along for the ride.
We ran a great route which showed off all the out of control streams and rivers. The huge rain and snowmelt had tuned the typically babbling brooks into raging rivers of death! I was extremely excited about this, as one should be, and stopped to take a picture.

Normally a little babbling brook

We had a good run, although there was an occasional fierce headwind. We had a few miles of dirt road that were basically ice, and since we had left the yak tracks at home (for the first time in at least 2 weeks) we proceeded with caution. Eric ended up with 15 miles, and I ran a couple extra and ended up at 17 and change. It was a solid workout with no bullshit.
We celebrated with beers and my dad, and cheese and the pub dog Winston, and it was a delightful time (as always, pub runs should be on everyones agenda.)

The pub run people 

The only annoying thing about this run was that I needed to stop and pee TWICE. That's what happens though, when you have an 11cm Big Fun Fibroid! (especially when I have sneaky PMS I have to pee a LOT, and there is no choice about it! Today ladytime showed up a couple days early and explained my crappy Friday feeling, and my out of control Saturday peeing. So fun.) At this point, I still choose excessive peeing over medium major abdominal surgery.

Sunday was downhill repeat day, outdoors in completely decent 14 degree weather, on mostly dry roads (there was one patch of death ice- where a stream had run over the road and frozen into hideous tundra. It was very exciting!) The dry roads are AMAZING after a couple weeks of yak trak running, on really icy snowy roads.

I really enjoy my downhill repeats when done outdoors because the hill is enormous and I pretend I am riding my bike down it, blazing along at 40 MPH. I am hoping this workout helps me to feel less like an asshole at Boston. (Boston, historically, makes me feel like an undertrained noob.)
However, if this particular workout ends up helping me not at all, it is ok because it is really fun.

So there we are, week two done and done.

Stats:
Miles Run: 39.8 which is kind of annoyingly close to 40

Elevation this week: 2,108

Lowest low temp: -6 (lowest high was close to 15)

Highest temp- 50 which was a miracle

Total snowfall: None, but a shit ton of rain

Coldest day that I ran outdoors: It was somewhere between 12-15 when I ran on Monday.

Random fact: While running, Eric and I have some good conversations, and our finances/financial goals come up fairly often. Almost any time we decide we are "doing ok" and make a plan to toss some extra cash at the mortgage, it is a guarantee that the next day our fridge will die, a dog will get sick, or out heating system will have mysterious and costly issues. We plan to eliminate financial planning from our running conversations!!!