Today's plan was 6 repeats of the Grange Hill but I abandoned that idea after the first one. The unmaintained portion of the road was snowy with variable texture and uneven footing and occasional patches of thick, breakable ice that hurt my feet through my shoes. Nothing to do with the injury, although unpredictable footing isn't great for it; the problem was just sharp things poking my feet at odd angles. I'd be crazy to go through that section 12 times, although I did do two repeats (4 times through that section) so apparently I'm a little nuts.
I ran the rough lane to the quarry and went up to the Bruce Trail entrance on Creditview. The trails were snowy with bad footing too so I called it a day and went browsing at Caledon Hills Cycling instead. New cycling shoes are in my future but their new stock is still coming in.
The running wasn't great today but the podcasts were:
- TA1 interview with Nathan Fa'avae. (I think Randy just interviewed me to get practised up for this one! ;) ) Amongst other things, Nathan told the behind-the-scenes version of the story of their withdrawal from the Costa Rica world champs. It's a decision he now regrets. He said he's too busy with his 3 kids to pursue a structured training program; he just gets out when he can. Seems to be working for him. He said he'll race through 2015, then he'll probably retire. He's working on an autobiography.
- Trail Runner Nation interview with Gordy Ainsleigh, who has some interesting stories and ideas. I'm not sure about his idea of curing cancer with diet and supplements but he had some intriguing thoughts about running. He thinks it's possible to win Western States 100 on 3 runs/week if the quality of mid-week runs is high enough. He was known as a strong downhill runner and now thinks it was a mistake to do that, given the damage his body has sustained. He's a longtime ultrarunner, finisher of WS100 more than 20 times, and also a chiropractor. He says the guys he knew who ran 6 times a week 30 years ago are no longer running, whereas some people who ran less often are still going.
http://gordonainsleigh.com