Ultra training week three (or is it four?)

I'm losing track of my training schedule, not a good sign. No matter: I know the race date and I suppose that's all that matters:

Feb. 15, 2014

I wrote in large fonts because I wanted the magnitude of my terror to resonate.

But onward, no? This week's training, or last week, since I'm a bit behind schedule, went well. I toiled away at the gym for three two-hour sessions  while watching Love it Or List It, my favorite workout show.

Wednesday I ran 10.5 miles around and around and around the indoor track at the Dome. The first four miles were fast and hard and wonderful. Then the Anchorage Running Club held their annual meeting and we voted in board members and had Subway sandwiches, and since all the sandwiches contained meat, I ate pickles and onions and a cookie instead and then ran 6.5 more miles. I do not recommend this. 

Saturday I ran 16 miles over trails that varied from hard-packed to slushy to slick. My foot began hurting around mile 12 but I kept going and really, it wasn't that bad of a hurt, more of a dull ache.

The trails were quiet, no one else around. I passed a runner or walker every mile or so and then, as the dark descended, no one else. I turned on my headlamp and that cheerful circle of light hugged around me and it was so cozy running through the trails at night, with the snow shadows and the silence and the night sky, the birch and spruce trees whispering small gasps as snow fell off their branches.

It was one of those perfect runs that wasn't actually perfect, if that makes sense. Parts of the trail were pure ice, other parts windblown and rough and my foot didn't cooperate as well as I expected. But still, it was perfect because of the silence and the snow and the night sky.

Sunday I took the day off and had studded snow tires put on my car. Basically, I sat on a pile of tires at Sam's Club reading The Stand (I love you, Stephen King) for over three hours, which wasn't very delightful but at least I had a thick book to keep me company (Nadine just moved in with Harold and sealed both of their fates with the Dark Man).


Reading: The Stand, as mentioned. I've read it at least four times before but never stop loving it. I'm also reading Yesterday Road by Kevin Brennan and just downloaded Aurora Sky by Nikki Jefford. So this week I'll be finishing up a horror classic, diving inside literary fiction and starting a young adult novel about vampire hunters in Alaska. And, oh yeah, in my job I'll be writing about a food drive, the fallout of the last assembly meeting and a dodgeball tournament. I hope I don't mix everything up and insert vampires in the assembly story, though it would liven it up a bit, no?

Cheers and happy running and reading, everyone.