Week of Jan. 26 - Feb. 1, 2026
This week was week 5 of 17 of my training plan for the On the Dam 30k on April 25, 2026. This was a really mixed up week due to the snowstorm that started the week AND personal travel that I had.
From Saturday night (Jan. 24) through Monday morning (Jan. 26), we got about 5 inches of snow, followed by about 5 inches of sleet (really - it sleeted heavily for like 8 hours), followed by a topping of freezing rain. Fortunately my husband was on top of all the weather transitions, and we shoveled when the snow changed to sleet (5 inches shoveled), he shoveled again before sunset, about halfway through all the sleet (3 inches more shoveled), and then we finished the last 2 inches the next morning. Even though the last was only about 2 inches, it was an absolutely frozen layer. We used our metal garden shovels to break up the ice into plates before we could shovel them. All told, my husband and I spent about 9 person-hours shoveling. We're fortunate in this case to have a small section of sidewalk and not a big driveway. People around the neighborhood are cutting out chunks of ice and building igloos.
Because of the storm, the university where I teach had "snow days" all week, so I spent the week adapting things to go online to keep from getting too behind in class - Monday was supposed to have been the first day of classes for the semester. The funny thing about this is that they kept announcing the snow days one at a time, so I kept thinking "one more day I can sleep in a bit" and skipping my morning strength training...and then it added up to the whole week. Oh, well.
On top of the snowstorm recovery and my course being mixed up, my mother had finger/wrist surgery on Friday. My plan was to go up to her place Thursday after class (that would have been a late arrival!), so the silver lining of the snow day was that I could drive up there on Thursday morning and teach my class on Zoom in the afternoon. Then drive to Pittsburgh for her surgery. Fortunately everything went really well with that - they were just behind schedule so we waited a long time. I stayed with her Saturday to help her out getting used to her recovery process (restricted use of right hand) and left Sunday morning (today as I write this). Her area got about 18 inches of snow in the storm - all snow - on top of quite a bit they already had, so the whole area was a mess. It was also SO COLD....the morning of the surgery, when I woke up, it was -13 F.
So....with all of that, there was a lot of adjusting my training this week.
Monday before lunch:
- Personal Challenge Day 26/31: 26 push-ups with 20-lb vest
- Walk on treadmill
- time: 46:13
- distance: 2.45 mi
- incline: 1%
- comments: I had planned to do another walk on the treadmill before dinner, but after about 2.5 hours of shoveling (including a lot of ice-breaking), I was toast. I had gotten my 10k steps, so I said "good enough".
Tuesday before dinner:
- Personal Challenge Day 27/31: 27 push-ups with 20-lb vest
- 60 min easy on treadmill
- time: 1:00:05
- distance: 5.0 mi
- average pace: 12:01
- average HR: 142 BPM - within my target range
- comments: I HAAAAATE running on a treadmill. I haven't done it for years. But we had done a short walk around our neighborhood, and a lot of people hadn't even started shoveling yet, and so it was going to be way too icy. The temperatures were still well below freezing.
Wednesday before dinner:
- Personal Challenge Day 28/31: 28 push-ups with 20-lb vest
- 60 min easy on treadmill
- time: 59:55
- distance: 5.01 mi
- average pace: 11:58
- average HR: 135 BPM - within my target range
- comments: Still hate it!
Thursday
- Before breakfast: Personal Challenge Day 29/31: 29 push-ups with 20-lb vest - I did this before I drove to my mother's.
- Before dinner: power hiking hills on treadmill
- time: 1:28:13
- distance: 4.65 mi
- elevation gain: 2553 ft
- 5 min: 3.0 mph, 6 - 14% incline
- 10 min: 15%
- 10 min: 14%
- 10 min: 3.1 mph, 13%
- 10 min: 12%
- 10 min: 3.2 mph, 11%
- 10 min: 10%
- 10 min: 3.3 mph, 9%
- 5 min: 8%
- 5min: 3.5 mph, 1%
- rest: decreasing speed
- comment: In the first stage of the TransRockies run, there is arguably the hardest climb of the whole race: almost 3600 ft within about 5 miles. A power hike like this is very race-specific!
- comment: I did this at the YMCA near my mother's. The YMCA helpfully programs all their treadmills to end programs after 30 min, so I had to keep starting up where I had left off.
Friday after breakfast: walking at
Walmart
- time: 1:08:45
- distance: 2.44 mi (?? based on steps, not GPS)
- average pace: 28:10 (I am dubious about this)
- comments: I needed to get my steps in before taking my mother to her surgery. Walmart was the closest large indoor space...I did 11 laps around the interior perimeter. Yes, this was very boring.
Saturday before lunch: 60 min easy on treadmill
- time: 59:44
- distance: 4.98 mi
- average pace: 12:00
- average HR: 123 BPM - within my target range. This seems very unlikely to have really been that low. It certainly didn't feel that easy.
- comments: This was at the YMCA again. They are making a lot of money off me this winter - I haven't had to go there for years (when visiting my mother), but this winter has been so snowy up there!
Sunday before dinner:
- Personal Challenge Day 30/31: 30 push-ups with 20-lb vest - finishing this up after a pause to visit my mother
- 90 min LR on trail
- T+D 27, no effect, T 25 F, WC 13 F - breezy, but it was sunny so overall didn't feel that bad
- time: 1:30:01
- distance: 6.99 mi
- average pace: 12:52 (GAP ave pace: 12:50)
- splits: 12:44, 12:27, 13:10, 13:30, 12:55, 12:33, 12:48
- ave HR: 135 BPM - within my target range
- elevation gain: 200 ft (corrected)
- route: Rock Creek Trail
- comments: Technically, this is a paved trail. But it was completely covered with about 10 inches of frozen snow and sleet, so I figured it would be a good trail analog. I used my yaxtrax and ran over the top of it - no slipping, and I hardly even left any tracks! The areas that were mostly undisturbed and flat were pretty easy to run on. There were other sections where there had been people out on the trails during the storm, so the frozen snow was lumpy - that was pretty annoying to run on, and those are the slower miles. I definitely used every little stabilizer muscle in my legs, and I think I'll be feeling this one!
Health
Nothing remarkable. Sore from shoveling.
Good for you and your husband for getting it done!
