snowy 20K

Apparently the weather has not heard that it is MAY now. It has been snowing daily for 4 days, and I have had enough.

This morning I was to do 20K easy. I am getting a bit bored with the flat routes I've been doing, and thought my foot was up for some hills, so I did 20K easy-moderate on a hilly route. I'm not very good at following directions, am I ;)?

Before I left I had the sudden realization that I left my favorite gloves and orthotics & shoes at Madeline's house yesterday after the 5K. Drat! It's a 30-min drive over there :( so I'll have to go get them later. Fortunately I do have 2 pr of orthotics, and I did get the hard plastic pr adjusted by the podiatrist so was hoping they wouldn't cause any more blisters. It was fine (whew). I do think I might prefer the other pair though. And at least I have a couple pr of shoes going at any time, so I had shoes I could use (though now they are WET!).

It was raining lightly when I left my house, but there was snow on the car and the grass. But the streets were clear. I think it was a mistake to do a hilly route today, though, because as I went up (181m; 593ft according to my Garmin) it got snowier. By the time I got up to the zoo, it was snowing pretty hard, and there was some slush on the sidewalks. I was also pretty tired from the uphill and was thinking that 20K was going to be very long today. But I kept going anyway, and got a second wind around 12K or so after eating some jelly beans. The first half was mostly uphill (well, up the 600 ft, then down 170 ft) and I did an out-and-back, so there was a lot less uphill on the second half. The first 10K took me 1:13:28 (very slow - but remember the hills!) and the second 10K was 1:07:20 (faster, but obviously I was tired by then!). Ave HR 144 for the workout.

I listened to some 60 minutes podcasts, and then when I ran out of those (3 episodes), I put on the Brahms Requiem. The 2nd movement "Den Alles Fleisch" got me up the hill on the way back :). It's very stirring; I love that piece. I needed the music - today was tough with the hills and the weather (it snowed and rained the whole time I was out until the last 2K when it was very very light rain or no rain), but I am so glad I went. I am in a really good mood now :) and I have to say I love the RW endorphins :).