Training Log Archive: Swampfox

Snow is good, love snow. But there is a downside. I can go days and days of running in snow with no problem, and then, very randomly, one day I come back home and the skin on my feet starts developing cracks. Feet skin cracks not good, do not love feet cracks. But as far as I can tell, it's going to happen, almost no matter what. Probably the only prevention is Texas, or maybe Arizona.

C • cracks 8

We had blizzard today. Or two blizzards, more accurately. Blizzard One during breakfast. By the time I was ready to run, Blizzard One had moved on off east. That was disappointing, but I ran anyway. There really wasn't much new snow--maybe 1-2"--but you don't *have* to have much snow for blizzard--a little bit can go a long way. What you do have to have is big wind.

Then, shortly after I was back home--now dark out--Blizzard Two hit. Blizzard Two was much more impressive than Blizzard One. There was more snow, and the wind was much Bigger. When blizzards arrive at night, it often makes me wonder: how do the bulldozers survive? I really have no idea. It also sometimes makes me think of Randy Rhoads, but that is a whole other thing.

Pretty windy today, with warning signs flashing on the interstate, and colder notes providing an undertone to the mix. Must be slight change of weather on the way in, from Boise, perhaps, or maybe Reno.

I wasn't sure what to wear for running, but opted to edge towards something warmer than I've used the past few days, so wind pants instead of O' pants, a long sleeved shirt under a light jacket, and brought along a neck gaiter just in case--sometimes the conditions up higher are markedly different than down in town, and during the winter half of the year "markedly different" to the sort of balmy, still air you might encounter down around San Antone this time of year.

Once again, no signs of turkey during the outing, and in fact the only living thing I saw the whole time was one lone snow biker. Not a whole lot different in town, actually; during Turkey Time, much of the town's population decamps, for parts unknown. Maybe this year people boarded tourist buses and headed south to the border to gaze at el presidente's mighty wall.

On a completely unrelated note, here's a question: how many Div 1 basketball teams have a player named "Unique" on them? I don't have any idea, but with a name like that, you would hope it is one and only one.

C • Well, I know of one Unique.... 2

Some days it's better to be a turkey than others, but this is not one of those days. Backing that up, I didn't see a single turkey track in the snow when I was running today. But I'll tell you what--I bet the natives around here didn't have turkey on T-Day. Or cranberries or over-cooked string beans. (Tell me over-cooked string beans aren't worth a double yum! Yum-yum!!) I bet they were looking forward to pizza and lacrosse games.

Back-to-back really nice days, and back-to-back really nice O' running at Granite Planite.

I found a beer bottle today while warming, and it was 100% wasp free! I did check very carefully. ; )

Night running on snow trails, with moon providing all the light. Maybe the packs of ravenous snow bikers were over at Curt Gowdy; they sure weren't where I was.