22 miles 3:00 Sourdough Trail to Bozeman Creek Canyon out and back (Puma Cortland II)
I woke up this morning to -9F temps and falling snow. Gotta love Montana, I suppose. I felt really good on this run despite the chilly weather. I was getting decent purchase on the squeaky cold snow, and because it was the weekend there were very few people up and moving about yet. There are about 4 miles worth of roads to get to the canyon, but then running in the canyon is nice because it's protected from the wind. The trail was about what I expected--probably 6 inches or so of packed snow and a couple inches of new snow. It made for punchy footing, so I only ran about 2 1/4 miles in (there are mile markers) before heading back to town.
I took a gel with me on this run in case anything like yesterday happened, but today I was strong the whole way except for my left hamstring (chronically tight) and my right hip flexor (also been a bit of a problem the last couple of years). Sometimes I think I should give in and just devote myself to a consistent yoga routine...but the thing is, I'd always rather be out running for an extra half hour or hour than stretching.
The ankle was completely fine on this run, but the top of my foot was a little tight every now and then. It's definitely something to do with a tendon there, but at this point it's not really limiting me, so I'll just keep watching it. Iced my whole foot in a cooler of snow-water after the run.
Finally, my name didn't get drawn today in the Western States 100 Lottery...maybe some day I'll find the time to vent my views on the current situation in ultra running of race entry, depth of competition, race fees, etc., etc., but not right now. All I'll say is that I'm not convinced yet to try and qualify for WS by running one of the Montrail Ultra Cup races (Way Too Cool 50K, American River 50, Miwok 100K). Right now, my opinion is that I won't fly across the country to only run 31 miles, AR is too asphalty and flat, and I want to do the Zane Grey 50 instead of Miwok. I'm thinking of maybe entering the Massanutten 100 in May and then hitting up the San Juan 50 in June. Or maybe I'll do just the Bighorn 100. We'll see.
In other news, apparently Uli beat Matt today out at the TNF 50 Championship race. That isn't super surprising to me, but I did expect Matt to come out with the win. Maybe he is finally getting old after all...I'll be interested to hear his take on the race. Unfortunately, I haven't heard any further results from that race, yet.
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