Sunday Long Run

I woke up planning on a lap around Ft Snelling with running Beth.  I was a failure at finding my running partner this morning.  I still haven't figured out how we missed each other.

Most of the last week I spent on my couch in this position, so I still wanted to run but wasn't too keen on Ft Snelling without a running buddy or foreknowledge of the trails.  (I was expecting some level of ice.)

Instead I drove home, got some food and water and headed out on an 11-12 miler.  (It adds mileage when the running trails aren't clear.)  Here's the route I took:

I did the Run 5 Walk 2 interval again.  Because there's no way I should actually be running 11 miles right now.  It helped break the run up.  Around the lakes I'd try to think about how far I could go in five minutes of running and see where I'd actually be.  Most of the time I was a pretty close to what I thought.

It's hilarious to me that this is acceptable in Minnesota this winter.  It's been like 40* several days already.  Nonetheless, thanks for the lights because I thought they were great.

The trail situation around the lakes was, um, interesting.  Most of the time both the bike path and walk/run paths were clear.  But the walk/run path was never plowed so there were some impressive patches of ice.  I stayed on the bike paths most of the time.

I did wear a neck gator today.  A lesson I learned from my last cold weather long run.  It felt really hot at first but by the time I got to the lakes I was glad for it.

An ice fisherman drilling holes on Lake Calhoun.  If you look closely in the background you can see downtown Minneapolis.

I've posted a few pictures of the Bandshell before, mostly from the lake side.  Here's the other view of the bandshell that I see on my runs.

Heading to the walking bridge over the interstate; that's the "one mile to go" bridge.

Looking down an alley by my house.  It was a really cool shot, zoomed in that alley goes on forever.

Finishing off the water in my bag so I could clean the thing out. So far, two nice runs with the new Camelbak. I haven't come close to drinking all of the water in it (which is a good sign for long hot summer runs).   That means I can run further right?

Highlights of my playlist for this run:

• Cobra Starship - You Make Me Feel.  This song just kept going and I couldn't figure out who it was.  It's new to my iPod.
• Guru Josh Project - Infinity.
• MissDaja feat Nicki Minaj - Mean Walk.
• Usher - More, fitting for Superbowl Sunday
• Kelly Clarkson - What Doesn't Kill You (Stronger).  My new favorite song.