Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Afraid to look at the forecast

On Sunday, we were hearing 4"-7" of snow for today. By Monday, it was 5"-10". When the winter storm warning got posted yesterday, it was 6"-12". By the end of the day, it was 7"-14". Then, 10"-16". Now, some parts of the state are expected to get 12"-20" and we're in that part of the state.

I'm not really afraid of the forecast and I'll really be glad for this snow when I ski on the weekend. A number of forecasters have compared the structure of this storm to the Valentine's Day storm of 2007, which is the biggest snowstorm I've ever seen. The mountain where I teach reported 59" from that storm. They won't get anywhere near that this time, mostly because this storm is only going to last 24 hours or so, rather than almost 48 hours, but the mountain could easily see more than two feet of snow.

I wish I could take the day off to go skiing tomorrow, but I really need to work.

Last night, I did a rare mid-winter road run after work. I got into work a little bit early and I was on the road after work by 4:30. I had to turn on my flashlight for the last mile or so, mostly when cars were coming towards me. My time was 58:31 for 6 miles. I can only run on the roads safely in the winter when it's been a while since our last snowstorm. I need the roads to be really clear and I need some daylight, because I don't want to be forced to dive into a snowbank if a car doesn't see me or doesn't feel like sharing the road. The roads were finally mostly clear, but it will be at least a week before that happens again.

This morning, I did 65 minutes on snowshoes on hilly terrain. The snowshoe trails were finally getting packed down enough that they are fast again, but today's storm will change that. Tonight, I'll do an easy hour on the treadmill and then work on snowblowing the driveway.

Last Wednesday, I pulled something in my left hamstring doing interval work. It bothered me off and on through the weekend, even when I was skiing. After my massage on Monday night, it was feeling better. Then, yesterday morning, I tweaked it again doing dumbbell snatches. This morning, it was really bothering me. I think I'm going to spend some time today sitting on a tennis ball to work on massaging the area where it's tight. That should either help or make things a lot worse. Either way, it will look ridiculous if anyone comes into my office and sees what I'm doing.

Best of luck to my friend Dr. Andy at the Pittsburgh Indoor Rowing Championships this weekend. He's had some great workouts recently and I'm sure he'll do very well.

Because the marathon in Albany that I've done many previous winters is during a busy time at the ski resort, I'm leaning towards attempting my first ever snowshoe marathon this year. The race is in March when the days will be longer and probably warmer. I think it actually rained for this race last year. There is a 10 hour time limit, and doing a slow snowshoe marathon will probably be better ultra training than doing a road marathon, mostly because I'll be out there longer. The downside is that the race is on a Saturday and I'd probably end up skiing the next day.

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