Running in a winter wonderland
And that, my friends, is another annual running goal met with success! Every mile I run for the rest of the year is gravy. And they will be run in a winter wonderland, as with my last miles which were very fun and very cold miles. That’s because I am home in America for the Christmas holidays.
And there’s been snow. A lot of snow. Like, a lot of a lot of snow. And as I participate in a challenge to run every day in December, I had to run in a lot of snow over the last two weeks.
To keep safe (i.e.: not running on snowy roads with cars) I did several of my runs in the alley behind my parents’ house. There’s a north-south alley that runs along the back of their property and an east-west alley that ends (forming a T-junction) at their place. So, I did lots of ups and downs in the snowy alleyway (as shown below).
I also managed some good runs on the roads in Cle Elum a couple of times. It was quite snowy, but I managed to find safe and (relatively) traffic-free routes to run on.
This was easiest on Christmas morning as I did a sunrise run that day – with no traffic to be seen. Yay!
As for today’s run, the run that put me over my 800-mile goal, I ran that in a snowy car park on Joint Base Lewis–McChord whilst Daddy was in picking up prescriptions. Laps and laps, around and around for 3.15 miles at a steady 10-minute/mile pace.
And as much as I’d like to rest now, I can’t. Because, as mentioned above, I like to run every day in December. And then, of course, I’ll have to run on New Year’s Day, too. So… no time for a rest, yet.
And as there’s no let-up on the snow, I expect those remaining runs to be a challenge. After all, snow running is hard work.
Anyhow… Unlike last year, I felt a lot more confident about my ability to meet my 800-mile running goal – even though it was 100 miles further than last year. That’s because I made better use of my monthly running goals so that I didn’t get too far behind. Although, like last year, I did find myself having to do some catching up.
As with 2020, I didn’t run any races this year (COVID!) and I didn’t manage to break any time records. But I think part of that was my early decision to attempt a stretch goal of 2021K (1,256 miles). That meant that I was pushing to get the miles in, rather than focusing on the quality of my miles. That, in turn, has led me towards the decision to focus less on miles and more on running for my 2022 goals (to be announced in 2022, of course).
But for now, I am just pleased that I hit my 2021 running goals. And it won’t be long before I can kick back and relax.