7 mile tempo

After finding the extreme temperatures a good excuse to cross-train like crazy the last week, I knew today I finally needed to actually go out and do my tempo run. I tried to leave work on time but realized it took me 15 minutes to change into all my layers (Thank goodness for my own office) before I flew out the door to catch the last hour of sunlight. I started at the trail head under the 16th street bridge and looped through washington's landing, the strip and downtown. I was really excited as I started out running next to the river as the 'glaciers' floated down the river. It was positively gorgeous and I even had to stop once or twice just to watch the river. That was the highlight of the first three miles. All other aspects were miserable. I had not really thought that the trails would be snow covered and that no one would take care of clearing the sidewalks on the 31st street bridge. Needless to say, it was difficult to manuever between icy packed snow and slippery slush (or both). The beginning took long enough that I could barely make out the lovely sunset over the Ohio as I ran through the Strip. I was bummed I couldn't make it to the Ft. Duquense bridge to see it but was very happy to be back out running again - AND very excited to do our track workout tomorrow! (yeah, packing eveything in at once!)