Dusted off the Dions

Snow covered roads this morning made for a no-brainer decision to work from home and avoid the 35 mile commute south. At least in Southern NH, the changeover to rain did not start until much later in the day...somewhere between 1 and 2pm. The steady snow all day piled up nicely, leaving a good 8+" of snow on the ground by noontime.

Just before noon Michael Amarello called to see if I wanted to go snowshoeing in Horse Hill. Really? You have to ask? Are you kidding me? Of course I'm in! See you at 12:15pm. Bill Morse decided to join us as well, making the scary ride north on slick roads. It's good to have company when you go snowshoeing on virgin trails. Breaking trails alone can be very tiring.

Thankfully, the rain held off for most of our run, but the snow was pretty heavy and packed easily. I took us on a nice loop over the two major hills in the preserve (Blodgett and Horse Hill) and tried to stay on just the single tracks, including a couple of new ones. We definitely didn't break any speed records but for those who snowshoe, you know that speed is not needed for a good workout. We were all working hard. When you factor in the cement we were running in I'd say we did pretty well, staying out there for 1hr and 20min...not bad for the first snowshoe of the season!

As a side note: 8+" of snow fell earlier today and right now a thunderstorm is passing through. How weird is that?

Indoor Track Season has Begun

Last night was our first indoor winter track session at the Hampshire Dome in Milford NH, my favorite indoor track (actually, it's the only one I've ever run on indoors). We had a pretty good turnout as usual. Good to see so many folks willing to work on their running during the winter months.

After feeling sort of flat during my MCR leg on Sunday, I was hoping for a little life in my legs at track. With so many runners they broke us up into 3 groups based on pace. I was in group 1 with Joe R, Dan M and Mike W...all fast guys and all masters. The workout was 8 x 400's with 200m rest. The first week is generally easy just to get us in the swing of things. Since the track is roughly 1/5 of a mile, its a little harder to judge your pace during the lap and 1/4ish it takes to makes up 400m. So for me, it takes a few repeats to work on pace and get into a groove. I started with what I initially thought was a fast lap, slowed a bit too much on the 2nd and then settled into fairly repeatable laps. After 8 repeats I stopped for some water but then joined up with Mike W for 3 additional 400's...just for fun!

Times for each lap were:

1. 78 sec
   
2. 83 sec
   
3. 80 sec
   
4. 78 sec
5. 78 sec
6. 79 sec
7. 75 sec (felt really good so I pushed the pace a bit)
8. 77 sec
9. 82 sec
10. 82 sec
11. 78 sec

 I think for the 1st workout of the season I even surprised myself. Going into the workout I was thinking I'd run 83-85 sec per 400 but honestly, 78-80 felt pretty good...comfortably hard. I looked back at last years 1st workout (same workout) and I was closer to the 82-84 range. Faster than last year? I hope so!