1/25/2012 Insomniac Running Society conquers Scoutland, version 2.0

Even if it was going to mean I'd have to take day(s) off afterwards, there was no WAY I was going to not run tonight. MFA (Mysterious Foot Ailment) still existed but the constant cracking and creaking in the ankle joints had stopped. This implied a degree of stability that I was somewhat okay with, but I was a bit nervous as I pulled up to the Scoutland trailhead at 9pm.

We had no idea what the footing was going to be like, but Scout mentioned it had been below freezing for three full hours! And the temp was dropping, which was a good thing, because we had plenty of ice gear (Ice Spikes for her, Microspikes for me) but had neglected to bring the SCUBA gear.

We headed out into the probably-beautiful (I have yet to see them in daylight) fields of Scoutland, and the footing turned out to be totally runnable. There were swaths of ice interspersed with snow in varied degrees of decay, and patches of lumpy dead grass/bare ground as well. Sounds intense to write, but was nothing insurmountable.

Scout wanted to scout out a trail that pointed suspiciously toward the Cathance River area. I merrily followed along over rolling dale and hill, and the occasional electron bridge. Electron because you know what you are crossing is in fact a bridge, but one look and you can see it is generally void of structure. The bridges also tended to move and squeak a lot in relation to their physical observance. Not sure if they possessed an intrinsic angular momentum but was not keen to find out.

The temperature was very comfortable, around 30 degrees F, and the time flew by. We saw raccoon, coyote, turkey (dinosaur?), deer, and even rabbit tracks. Except for our voices and footsteps, it was quite silent out there.

The best and Most Salient Topic of the night, hands down, involved Scout's childhood interactions with a rather evil raccoon.

I kept wanting to exclaim things like, "foot = amazing!" and "HALLELUJAH! I am run!" but was afraid to jinx it somehow. The level of NQR-ness was consistent throughout, which I took as a great sign. Meanwhile, I picked Scout's brain about all things running. And what a great resource she is! I feel so fortunate. She offered to send me a training plan that she got from Emma (for a 50k or 50 miler, was it?) which was tempting to accept...but, especially as I look at the amount of variables that have hindered the last 6 months (or 9 years?), of my running, it just seems totally out of my league right now.

Actually it also sounds totally interesting, inspiring, and worth checking out, regardless of the bullshit league excuse. But I am not sure if I am ready to commit to someone else's plan due to my inexplicable and yet very real fear of doing anything as it has been done before.

I might or might not write more about my current conditioning schedule-ish thing (yes, it's true! I have one) on here sometime - maybe tomorrow during sleet/junk/storm/weather madness. Today, however, looks wondrous. I am going outside to play before a Cinder Conk rehearsal with a great new violin player tonight.

~113 minutes
~8.38 miles
~around 30 degrees, a bit hazy, night, footing was packed snow/rotten ice/patches of grass
~Brooks Cascadia 6, Smartwool sock, pants, polypro shirt, fleece grid shirt, gore-tex shell, light Ariat gloves, light cotton hat, Amphiod