A nice run in the hail

The good thing about hail is that you don't get wet. It bounces off you and goes somewhere else.

I walked a bit to start, then ran easy. The right amount of clothing was a tough call today. I was expecting rain, and it was certainly cool and windy out. I realized I'd got it right when I started running, and also realized I was going to have a good run. I warmed up for 15 minutes, nice and easy, going at a pace that would have left me winded only a couple months ago. I'm going to have to recalibrate my runs. It started hailing during the warm up, though it didn't really last long. It sort of snowed and hailed and rained throughout the run, as if it couldn't make up it's mind.

Did 3 x 10 minutes hard, with about 3 minutes rest in between. The plan was to run my goal half IM pace, which I can't quite do yet for a whole half IM. So today I just tried for max speed over the 10 minutes. This goal pace is not something I anticipate achieving this year for an entire half IM. I admit some uncertainty as to my exact pace, since I don't have a Garmin. The 10 minute segments felt faster than the Police Half pace, but that's very subjective.

The first 10 minutes started with a good downhill, then flat, followed by a rest at a very easy jog that dropped my heart rate by almost 30 bpm. The next 10 min was flat, then up hill ending about 3/4 the way up. It's hard getting your breath back at a jog when it's going uphill. The next 10 almost got me back home, running hard enough for the last 2 minutes to begin to think about regretting my breakfast. However all was well, and I jogged easy to fill out the hour run. Walked to cool down a bit more. I could see my breath on the air for most of the run, and at the end I was steaming a bit, so I took care not to cool down too much outside.

The ride up Highwood pass is off. (boo!) Here's the weather forecast for the town about 30 K east of the start of the road up the pass. The pass is more than 7,000 feet high. It seems all too likely there will be snow or ice on the road. It didn't take much discussion to decide that taking our skinny tire bikes up the pass would be dumb. We were prepared to deal with rain and cold, but snow and ice is a bit much. Another time! Longview is only a 60 K drive from here, and we're expecting to get snow overnight. What fun!