After a nice week of training in Vilnius and I mean some SERIOUS HILL training, I returned to run the 2 mile xc run in Moscow on the 3rd. In the morning, I was greeted by a surprise...a WHITE surprise. I awoke to sideways snow and the wind that was responsible for the sideways snow was HOWLING. Ok, winter's here. It was just barely below freezing but the snow had stuck. What to wear was a no brainer-the INOV8 xtalon 212s were it.
When I got to the woods where we would run,yes it was snowed under. The shoes turned out to be my saving grace. It was warm out but we were going to be on fresh snow today. I had a solid group to run with. There were 4 of us and I'm embarrassed to admit my competition was a good 13 or more yrs my junior. All these girls put down 5:3x or better miles on Sunday. Ahhh but I totally felt like I was cheating, the girls had on regular summer shoes. No, I just didn't care to fall and bust my ass on a slippery root hiding under the new snow! First loop we stuck in a pack going out just over 4min /km pace. Halfway through the 2nd loop one girl dropped back and then we were three. We would spend this loop passing and catching each other. My shoes gripped the snow like glue and I was not slipping at all woo hoo! WE really picked up the 2nd k coming in in 3:58! 3rd loop this continued and I ended up 3rd in the final kick to the finish. Anna was 2nd in Novemer and won this one while Marina was 2nd here and won in November. The 4th girl was just behind me. This is a new series of xc races that runs in 6 month increments whereas themile series is a 4 race series Nov-Feb. I am now kicking myself in the tail for skipping the October run or I'd be leading the series. I'm now second as Anna and Marina are tied for first after having run 2 races. I ran in November a couple days after getting off the plane from the US. My time on a clean course then was 12.54 on snow it was 12.51 which is a new snow PR. I've never been much better than 13.20 on snow even in my heyday in Alaska. Interesting how they score points for the series though. it's tough enough I'm in the 20-50 age group but they give you points based on how you place among men/women ie. if you chick guys, you get more points! They then take top 3 men/women in each division at the end of the series in March. Yup, the shoes + some sweet strength and hill training are doing something for me:)
Having a HILL of a time in Vilnius week of 28 Nov-super awesome +6C weather and no snow!
Thanks Vladas for the hill workout it's better with company!
This is wht it looked like on Nov 5th ...SEVEN days after I ran the 50k in chicago mind you. I felt like a total zombie here as I had some serious jet lag-
When I got to the woods where we would run,yes it was snowed under. The shoes turned out to be my saving grace. It was warm out but we were going to be on fresh snow today. I had a solid group to run with. There were 4 of us and I'm embarrassed to admit my competition was a good 13 or more yrs my junior. All these girls put down 5:3x or better miles on Sunday. Ahhh but I totally felt like I was cheating, the girls had on regular summer shoes. No, I just didn't care to fall and bust my ass on a slippery root hiding under the new snow! First loop we stuck in a pack going out just over 4min /km pace. Halfway through the 2nd loop one girl dropped back and then we were three. We would spend this loop passing and catching each other. My shoes gripped the snow like glue and I was not slipping at all woo hoo! WE really picked up the 2nd k coming in in 3:58! 3rd loop this continued and I ended up 3rd in the final kick to the finish. Anna was 2nd in Novemer and won this one while Marina was 2nd here and won in November. The 4th girl was just behind me. This is a new series of xc races that runs in 6 month increments whereas themile series is a 4 race series Nov-Feb. I am now kicking myself in the tail for skipping the October run or I'd be leading the series. I'm now second as Anna and Marina are tied for first after having run 2 races. I ran in November a couple days after getting off the plane from the US. My time on a clean course then was 12.54 on snow it was 12.51 which is a new snow PR. I've never been much better than 13.20 on snow even in my heyday in Alaska. Interesting how they score points for the series though. it's tough enough I'm in the 20-50 age group but they give you points based on how you place among men/women ie. if you chick guys, you get more points! They then take top 3 men/women in each division at the end of the series in March. Yup, the shoes + some sweet strength and hill training are doing something for me:)
Having a HILL of a time in Vilnius week of 28 Nov-super awesome +6C weather and no snow!
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