Saturday + Sunday =

...equals...UGH! I think I survived! I should know by tomorrow! Today's run called for 23km but I came up short! I hit the path at 8:26 and only 17 minutes into the run, I was sorry I second-guessed myself! It never pays! I hate running with my jacket tied around my waist but that's what I resorted to. At the last second, I talked myself into wearing a jacket and there was definitely no need for it! I was feeling a bit fragile this morning and thought it would bring comfort.

Boy, lessons were learned this weekend! Not only was I reminded not to second guess, but I was reminded how important proper fuel is for energy. You see, after our hike yesterday, we stopped in Longview and I devoured a greasy burger and glass of 7-up! It was delicious at the time but geesh it sure did a number on my stomach, I made it home last evening just in time and I still felt the after effects during my run this morning.

Feeling like a bump on a log, this is what my run turned out to be:

Time: 2:28:43
Distance: 22.2 km
Pace: 6:42 min/km

It was slow, it was difficult, it was short by .8km but I will take it!

Then there was yesterday! Eleven of us spent most of the hike, climbing up and down terrain that looks like this, battling wind that I have never experienced before in my life. I'm disappointed that my GPS did not spit out the weather information this time because I sure would love to know what speed the gusts reached. A few lost items that were not tethered down one way or another! We guesstimated that the gusts were possibly around 100km/hr.
When we were not climbing up and down the mountains, then we were breaking trail through (thigh deep for me, hip deep for some and even waist deep for a few) snow like this.

We felt reprieve when the route took us along areas like this, away from elevation and away from deep snow. The only thing here was, we did have to battle snow cyclones and they could be painful on the face.

We had company along the way. I have never seen tracks like this! What kind of animal could this be! Meow! I need to get one of those little books to carry in my backpack that identify animal tracks.

The map is busy! If you click on it you will have a better view. I am still learning things about my GPS and Google Earth! I'm terrible with directions. I like lots of landmarks so I can get my bearings. The red line is the route we took.

I sure hope Saturday's hike of 11.6 km with about 560 meters of elevation accounts for something towards my marathon training. It seemed like such a struggle the whole way! Even though, it was still fun being out in these new elements with fun people cause it made me feel like I was on top of the world!