Mileage Reporting 50th Week 2013

Back at it
I had the day off today to recover from the marathon that was cancelled for yesterday (oh well). moving on.
Excellent 5 mile run at 6:45 am 29 deg. F., 22 deg. wind chill. Ice still all over roads mostly dry.
I have not picked out another event, will keep y'all posted.
Feet good (little chilly)
Legs Good
note: I tried visualization of holding my feet a little to close to a fire and my toes catching on fire (but it didn't hurt) weird?

Sunday morning: one-mile run-commute.

This was my first shod run of the season, in Nick's Vivo Barefoot Neos. Last winter I made it to the 27th of December before I ran shod. That was the day I got frostnip after 1.25 miles. I put on my shoes and continued the run, without socks, after I noticed three of my toes had turned white in the fresh snow. Dumb, dumb, dumb. All my sole and toe calluses molted after a week or two. Yesterday I put on socks too.

Sunday afternoon: 5.15 mi, in about an inch of accumulation, 10F, a little windchill.

The Vivobarefoot Neos are perfect on compacted snow, but for the fresh stuff, I might've been better off with my Neo Trails. And then for dry surfaces, I'll use the Vapor Gloves. Kinda like a golfer with three different clubs. I guess the Vapor Gloves are my driver, the Neo Trails the putter, and the Neos whatever you call those clubs for the midrange stuff.

Anyway, felt good to get a proper run in after a week off. I ran the second half as Fartleks. I'm going to try to work on pace a bit this winter. I love how the snow gives you an extra workout of the glutes and stabilizing muscles, so I figure I mis' well push the workout a bit more with faster paces. My stubbed toe felt a little sore afterwards, so I guess no longer runs until it's 100%.

The Brunton handheld weather station I got is pretty worthless. It took a whole mile for it to change from my pocket temp of 27F to the air temp. I wanted something that would take spot measurements, like those new digital oral/anal thermometers that only take a few seconds.

This morning it was -18F / -30C windchill. Dammit, those are January temps. I did my best to channel Barefoot Bob and embrace it. No chance of running bare until Friday at the earliest. The Icebreaker Merino wool gear is doing a great job of keeping me warm and wicking away the sweat. On my hands I wear a thin wool glove inside a thin wool mitten, so I can adjust once I warm up by taking the mittens off, and/or putting the mittens back on if it cools down.

234 lbs this morning. I think the squats and deadlifts and the extra attention to the back stuff are adding mass. I'm also making sure to get protein into the system right before or right after a run or st session, and think this is helping recovery and allowing me to get full benefit.

rickwhitelaw said:

Saturday - 50 mile race, Expedition St. George.

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Great job Rick! You make it seem so easy.

4.75 miles shod today. 22 deg F when I took off and 23 degF when I got back. I averaged a 9:57 pace per mile. Great little run but man my lungs hurt now. Funny how I didn't realize they were hurting till I stopped and was walking on my cool down. As an added bonus to a great run I just found out I made it to round two in the interview process for a new job! Yay!

sunday morning: another 6 miles. better on hand protection for ~18F windy snowy conditions, but my face still had enough on the open roads and barren fields by the end. Wearing a thin scarf over my face made me warm, but then I would take it off, and the scarf would freeze into a stiff ice sculpture, and my moist warm face would instantly become ice. My nose was just beginning to hurt when I got back. Whine. Amazing that Rick is hard core enough to ultra in these conditions. Whew.

lunch: some weights, just a few, then
about 1hr, 20 min in pool. I had only intended to do a very relaxed hour at most, but the kids were having too much fun. Was I tired by the end. Lots of breaks, still it was a good weekend of workouts and both my upper and lower body were feeling it (in a good way) by the end.

Screw you, snow! 4.5 mile run. That was not easy to run in. I will feel it tomorrow. Plus an extra half mile cuz I dropped a glove. Even in 23 degree weather, I wear just a tank top, long-sleeved thin t-shirt, stretch pants and shorts -with leg warmers and gloves. I have to take my scarf off about 10 minutes in. I had to wear plastic bags under my socks cuz hubby's minimalist shoes (Dashes) are not waterproof - but it worked!

4.5 mile run including .95 km barefoot (ahh screw it lets call it 1km) at -33 degrees C tonight. Sweet, that was my temperature goal for this year , now to extend it to 2km and we are good. No damage to the feet, not even the least bit numb, but I did see some smoke.

jldeleon said:

Screw you, snow! 4.5 mile run. That was not easy to run in. I will feel it tomorrow. Plus an extra half mile cuz I dropped a glove. Even in 23 degree weather, I wear just a tank top, long-sleeved thin t-shirt, stretch pants and shorts -with leg warmers and gloves. I have to take my scarf off about 10 minutes in. I had to wear plastic bags under my socks cuz hubby's minimalist shoes (Dashes) are not waterproof - but it worked!

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Yep, that seems about right for dressing in those temps.
Not sure why you need waterproof shoes for snow? I wear soft stars, and if the snow is warm and slushy(air temps around 30) , my feet may get damp but never cold.
In cold snow (20s and lower), my feet never get wet unless I accidentally go in a puddle beneath ice or snow. Even then, not that bad. And I have feet that get very cold when bare in the 40s, so I'm not that hard core.
Just sayin you might find non waterproof is ok.

scedastic said:

Yep, that seems about right for dressing in those temps.
Not sure why you need waterproof shoes for snow? I wear soft stars, and if the snow is warm and slushy(air temps around 30) , my feet may get damp but never cold.
In cold snow (20s and lower), my feet never get wet unless I accidentally go in a puddle beneath ice or snow. Even then, not that bad. And I have feet that get very cold when bare in the 40s, so I'm not that hard core.
Just sayin you might find non waterproof is ok.

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I am a wuss as far as cold goes. I wore them for about 3 hours around town, afterward. By the time I took them off they had both managed to get a little water inside them, as if it seeped in from the seams.

They had been caked with clay for a loooooong time before my husband finally cleaned them, so maybe the material got stretched out at the seams.

It has taken over two hours for my feet to fully warm up - though my feet have always been like that. Maybe I peed on them during one of my trips to the bushes, during my run. Which reminds me, running in the snow makes it that much easier to avoid all the doggie poop and pee - or is it from the dogs...?

Bouncing back after the week of rest last week.
I worked out (back and biceps) yesterday and also went for a walk.
Today I'll do a walk and a workout (chest and abs)

Thanks for the comments guys. I did end up 2nd place Ultra division with the first guy coming in about an hour ahead of me. The other guy did start but dropped. I was last place overall, but at least I wasn't the last on the course because of an early start option. Official time was 9:39. Considering the warming up, fueling, and clothing change breaks I'm really happy with the time. The regular relay teams did not have to take breaks, of course, and did not lose any time at the exchanges.

Looks like most are having rough weather conditions. A good week for me to take some time off. Keep the hand wear tips coming as cold hands are my weakest link. I'm liking the double glove ideas.

Scratch said:

Yeah, layering gloves can work really well. Down to about 20 degress, I can get by with 2 pairs of gloves that I bought at a dollar store. If it gets colder than that, then I put on the serious gloves over top of those and the fingers stay warmer. The other big thing of course is keeping the body core area warm. I was watching a show one time where they were testing out various ways to keep hands warm in cold conditions and tasks that required the hands to be very functional. The way that worked best was keeping a person's core and arms warm. If the core is kept warm, the body is then free to pump warm blood into the fingers to keep them warm.

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I'm really sold on Merino wool for gloves and mittens, because if you do get sweaty, they'll wick the moisture away. The gloves and mittens I got are really thin, but even today, on my one-mile morning run-commute, when it was something like -18F windchill, my hands were nice and warm, and I probably would've had to have taken off the outer mittens if had run any farther, and just used the inner gloves.

For the overheating the core idea, I think that works well as long as there's no skin-to-object or -ground contact, but also, I think it's usually meant to apply to people who aren't running, when keeping the core warm can be an issue.

A lot of people here at BRS have suggested that overheating the core will help with barefoot running in cold temps, but I haven't found that to be the case. My core is always quite toasty after the initial warm-up of a mile or so, but if my feet or hands are coming into contact with something cold, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference. I think it's because the cold object conducts the heat away from the hand or feet faster than the air does. Wet ground or snow of course is the worst for barefoot running, because the cold moisture conducts the heat away even faster than cold, dry ground.

I suppose if I weren't running, then my core wouldn't heat up as much, and overheating the core might help. Yesterday I put snow tires on my wife's car. I was only wearing a fleece jacket, which was sufficient, but I couldn't hold a cold metal wrench in my hands for any length of time. Maybe if I had bundled up better I could've held the wrench a bit longer.

Yesterday I had my thin nike dri-fit gloves on and my hands were chilled a bit on the run till my body warmed up. Strangely, it was my thumbs that hurt the most and for the longest period of time. I also found my belly was quite cold when I got back and became quite itchy while it warmed up. Guess it's time for me to pull out some of my cold weather Army gear and start layering up more. I think the problem with my belly was because I was running into the wind for most of the run.

1 hr ST of chest, tri's and bi's.

NickW said:

Strangely, it was my thumbs that hurt the most and for the longest period of time. I also found my belly was quite cold when I got back and became quite itchy while it warmed up..

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Yep, I get both those issues as well.
My hypothesis on the thumbs is that they are farther away from the other fingers and have to be lonely and warm themselves. Saved by wearing socks on your hands instead when running, or by slipping the thumbs into the mitten area if mittens are being used (and besides, you don't need to use fingers for running). You might feel silly doing it, but all the fingers and the thumb stay together and even a lighter weight sock works better than a heavier weight pair of gloves, in my experience.

Not sure about the cold belly transitioning to itchy, but I do get that. My trunk stays much warmer if I tuck stuff in my running tights, and/or wear my belt/light/something around my waist to keep out the wind.

Got a 10 miler in today, second run since my near month long break. I'm always debating on just how fast to ramp back up after some time off, hoping I' not pushing it too hard but I took it at a very easy pace. Might be the only run this week unless I feel up to running again tomorrow (probably shouldnt try back to back so quick after coming back from a break). Got to work dayshift thursday-sunday and I have no good solution to run on days, at least while the sides of the roads are piled with slush and snow.

Was pretty chilly around 22F with light wind, but the run felt great. I had my thin Adidas hat and gloves on (just the knit looking ones) and I was at about the limit of what they could keep warm, with the wind (always an issue with the knit ones) and slow pace I was maintaining. I opted for my insulated tights (still very thin - and vented down the side) and a race tee with my thin uninsulated running jacket. Wearing all black on a bright day helps too. I struck about a perfect temperature after a mile or so warmup, but on the return with the wind in my face I started to get a bit chilled. Wore my Soft Star Dashes for the first time running, they are usually my dress shoes for work, but since I'm not on straight days anymore I'll rarely need them for that. This week I'll only need to wear dress shoes Thursday, and I can wear my Ra's too.

rickwhitelaw said:

Thanks for the comments guys. I did end up 2nd place Ultra division with the first guy coming in about an hour ahead of me.

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Awesome Rick! Those a tough conditions to race in for sure. Congrats!

jldeleon said:

I had to wear plastic bags under my socks cuz hubby's minimalist shoes (Dashes) are not waterproof - but it worked!

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Funny you should mention that since today was the first time I ever wore my Dashes running - since it was in the low 20s and the ground covered in snow. Average probably 2" up to around 4" in spots. I thought they worked super! And was pleased with how dry my feet were. I wore my ultra thin Injinji wool toe socks in them. When I got home and took em off I thought my feet were completely dry but after feeling around inside them with my fingers I could tell a little bit of dampness soaked through slightly in the seams around the toes, but that was it. The wool probably help make that tiny bit of wetness not even noticeable. If I decide to continue using them for snow, and I think I will, I might seam seal them like I do my tents. I take some GE clear silicone II and thin it with mineral spirits until its like a maple syrup consistency, then with a small paintbrush I apply it along the seams. Then I might treat the leather with some water resistant stuff like nuwax or whatever its called. Might help on slushier days - today was nice powdery dry snow which helped me stay nice a dry and warm for 10 miles of snow. Of course nothing will help well once its over your ankles... maybe some gaiters?

m-at least 3 sets deadlifts along with a few sets pistos and squats.
t-hr trail run in longtras. my feet kept warm but the tread isn't quite good enough for ice. i fell after warning someone the trail above was icy.

Great 5 miles at 3:30pm 34 deg. F., 55%rh... Saw some ducks, one large hawk and some other smaller bird of prey that I have never seen before.

1 hour of walking in the snow interspersed with squats, lunges, 2 legged crawling, backward walking up steep ramps and leg circles.