Recover from the Holidays 50K-Jan 8, 2011

After a month-long 'break' (following the dec 11 bartram forest 100K), I finally toed the line at a 50K..Frank and I had gone to the new year's marathon but 2 feet of snow foiled the efforts of most of the runners to do the full distance..we ran the 1/2 marathon in knee-deep snow covered trails and that was enough for me --I was moving for almost 3 hours!. the following day i ran 10 easy on the roads and felt completely beat up from the snow running!! So, appropriately, it snowed again on Friday, jan 7,
and running the MHRRC 50K seemed questionable--I worried about the drive up and about the snow on the course. I needn't have worried --the drive was easy (getting out in the dark was hard)if an hour and a half; and the sun came out and the day was pretty nice for January at Norrie Point park. The race started at 9 a.m. and was 10 loops of 3.1 miles --Frank and I got to the park at 8:50, right on time -I started with all my layers on, and wore my trails shoes-the footing was pretty bad, and my legs just wouldn't move!! Despite a rest day on Friday, they just seemed dead tired, and my quads were hurting--I think it was the combo of the stiffer trail shoes and the snow...but I didn't feel like i could pick up the pace and 15.5 miles took me 2:50! (with stops)--I then changed into some lightweight shoes, and felt much better -I was able to pick up the pace in the last 3 loops (34 min each) and to finish with negative splits in 2:40 (5:42)--we then met seth and Frances at the Hyde park brewery on the way home, which was the highlight!of the trip, besides finishing and seeing running friends like Lisa G. finish her first ultra!
The next day I ran the Boston Build up 10K, and while quads sore and overall tired, actually felt good and had some pick up in my legs to run a 7:42 pace...this week my achilles is bothering me--i think from the snow --so have to take it easy this weekend --next long run with hopefully be Run around manhattan in late jan...