Me + Trail

Yesterday I ran eight miles, most of which were on a local trail, and minus one lady walking her dog around mile two, I didn't see anyone else on the trail.

It was kind of nice having it all to myself. I don't listen to music when I run outside, so it was just me and my thoughts, and the sound of my feet crunching over the snow. I did stop to take some pictures; it was a beautiful day.

The ponds/creeks/standing water by the trail were all frozen.
Which made me wonder, where do the frogs, toads and turtles go during winter?

Hi

When I stopped my watch to take my lovely self-portrait, this was my time.
Totally by chance. So of course I had to take a picture of it.

My goal for this run was to stick to the pace McMillan suggested for a long run, instead of running by heart rate. Of course even though I checked before I left, I couldn't remember the range of the pace. I remember the low end was 9:13, but I didn't remember if the high end was 9:33 or 9:43 (it was actually 10:13). My overall pace was 9:30.

ALSO, I have my very first blister from my shoes. Which is confusing me. These shoes have 244 miles on them. Why are they just now giving me a blister? I wore my usual socks. The blister is on my right Achilles. The only thing I can think is that I wore my newer pair of the same shoes at the race on Saturday, with my usual socks, but I wore an additional pair of soccer socks over them. Maybe the double socks got a blister started, and it just got further aggravated on yesterday's run?