A week of rest

This marathon training program I'm following calls for a week of rest every third week of training. Rest is defined as less running, not no running! At this point, the training weeks consist of about 20 miles during the week and about 20-25miles on the weekend. The runs during the week are staying constant, but the long run on Saturday is building to reach the marathon goal. The week of rest is basically cutting the mileage in about half, allowing the legs to recover for the upcoming increase in mileage. This week calls for about 25 miles total since next weekend is my first 20 mile run.

Running 25 miles in a week seems like a breeze now, after building to about 40 miles per week. Actually, a couple of days this past week I felt a bit antsy because I was not running. Friday was such a day. So, I decided to take an unscheduled run outdoors. Please realize this was the first run outside in about 2 weeks due to the crazy snow we have been getting this year. I also wanted to get out to check the road/sidewalk conditions knowing that I really wanted to do the 20-miler on the road next week. So, I bundled up and hit the road.

There is still a lot of snow out there. The streets are clear, but there are no shoulders and many of the sidewalks are not clear. So, it was a bit of a challenge. I ran around the neighborhood, keeping to the street when the sidewalks were covered. I left the neighborhood on my normal path to the adjacent neighborhood and quickly realized I do not like running on the street with no shoulder. Those cars move very fast! I turned around and headed back to my neighborhood.

I got just over 4 miles in, and while it was nice to be outside, it was very hard to keep pace. In addition, I had to keep looking at my feet to make sure I was not stepping on snow/ice chucks or black ice. I kept thinking that running the neighborhood was not so bad, but if I was tired at the end of a long run, I may not be as careful, and would probably hurt myself.

Looking forward to next weekend, I need to find some place with sidewalks/streets plowed well so I don't have to worry about my footing. Running 20-miles is a challenge enough without having to worry about jumping over snow banks and slipping on black ice. I know the downtown area is more maintained than the location I'm at, so I may start there.

How hard can it be to find 20-miles of road/sidewalk with no snow or ice only two weeks after the 50+ inches on snow dumped during the Blizzard of 2010??? Argh...