Monday 1/4/16

Usual Monday at work. One call. Seems almost predictable. Weather was brutally cold so I wasn't looking forward to that part of the run. I brought enough clothes, though, and just went out there and did it. I live in NH. I don't love the cold, but if I want to run outside, I have to get used to it again.

I wasn't sure how the conditions would be on the dirt road sections, but I decided to give it a go anyway and run a loop in Madison/Chocorua from the Silver Lake train station. It started off on the clear, dry road on High St, but as soon as I hit North Division Rd, I was running on an ice slab that was fortunately covered in a decent amount of sand. It really wasn't too bad. The same conditions continued onto Savary Rd. It's tough running in the dark with just a headlamp because it's hard to make out the footing. Sometimes it looks like it's just dirt, but it turns out to be just more ice covered in sand. So it takes a lot of concentration when all I want to do is just run. I was happy when I got back on the pavement of Washington Hill Rd and Deer Hill Rd for the run back to the car. I hadn't paid attention to my time during the run, but, based on feel, I felt I was in the 7:50s for pace. I was completely shocked to see I had run the 8.7 miles at a 7:01/mi pace. Way faster than I thought and with 782ft of elevation gain. VERY happy with this run!