Sad Video Attempt

After watching Dan's video last week (breakheart trail running), I decided to give it a try. Actually he made it look very easy....my attempt did not fair so well. First I tried to video a bunch of wild turkeys as I ran up to them.....I had this great vision of many fluttering wings and the sky cluttered with the twenty or so birds scurrying in all directions....It didn't quite go as planned.

Then I shot a video of myself talking about my run. This one failed misserably too as I didn't even get a full shot of my face. Oh well next time will be better. For the sake of laughter is good medicine I am showing the videos anyway.



I finally decided to try scew shoes instead of yaks, so I screwed my Northface trail runners and went out for a 2 mile jog. They worked very well and so I planned a long run with them on Sunday.



Feb 07 2009 My son bought a new snowmobile so we went out in our field and spent hours trimming branches. It was quite a workout and we both decided that a trip to the gym would not be needed today.





Feb 07, 2009 Sunday Though I was still feeling affects from my cold and sore throat, I was itching to get out and run. I spent the whole week trying to take it easy and get over the sickness. After my short run Saturday, I had no trouble breathing only slight hacking and coughing and I felt good running. I figured I would just head out with the intent of a long run and play it by ear.

I felt great at the start and followed the snowmobile track to the old railroad bed behind my house. From there I hit the powerlines and ran south toward Yarmouth. The track on the power lines was pretty good, packed down but still was giving way as I pushed off. This was a bit tiring as it caused me to work a lot harder.

As I was getting ready to turn down the trail to Val Hala Golf course I saw a flock of wild turkeys up ahead and had my first attempt at shooting a video. After that failed, I followed the trail to Valhala. Up until this point I was feeling pretty good but as a huge cross wind hit me, I worried about my layers and if I had worn enough.

The golf course was very mealy and difficult to run on. I met a snowmobiler and tried to run on the edge of the trail and instead of being out of his way, my right foot sunk to my knee and the momentum of running threw me down in his path. Lucky for me he was riding safe and had plenty of time to stop and wait for me and my embarrassed face to get out of his way.

I followed the trail to Twin Brooks and found some well groomed cross country trails there. I jogged around the trails for a bit, met and said high to at least 10 dogs, raced a cross country skier for a bit..(I won, though she might not have known we were racing) and then headed back toward the golf course. Or at least I thought I was going to find the trail I came in on.

Finding the trail was not so easy as I thought for sure I could meet up with it without going back to the parking area. Well, I was wrong and finally backtracked to the railroad tracks.

By the time I arrived back at Val Hala, I was spent. So I shot my second video, drank some perp and a power gel, then headed back the trails to home. Mile 8 was my toughest as I seemed to hit a wall. I could feel the power gel kick in and the last mile and 3/4 was much better.

Overall I felt pretty good about the run as I lasted 2 hours and wasn't bothered much by the cold or sorethroat. I was spent though and looked forward to lazing around the house for the rest of the day.

I plopped in front of the TV for a couple hours and my daughter showed up with her little dog. They were itching to go out for a trail walk so we threw on the snowshoes and we kicked a fun little 3 mile snowshoe tromp. I figured I would probably be sorry for going back out but surprisingly I felt fine.....actually better than when I was lazing on the couch...go figure!


9.75 miles 2:04:32 11:58 pace
hr av 137 max 155 (sure felt harder!)
Mile 8 was my slowest mile at 3.8 mph
Mile 2 was my fastest at 7.3 mph
Average 4.4 mph.


P.S. If you made this far without becoming completely bored, you have probably noticed that there is no video at all....well it didn't up load so I guess my attempt failed even worse than I originally thought. I will try again.....