Frozen Bottles

You know it's cold when your water bottles start to freeze in the first 60 minutes.
Tuesday was a tough run along Fire Island from Smith Point to the Moriches Inlet and back, not made any easier by the icy wind blowing spindrift from the northwest; I tried to capture what it was like.
It's surprising how little you notice the cold when you're running, but it does make me wonder how much of a challenge acclimatization is going to be.

Lunch for the next few weeks

A quick trip to the shops has yielded an interesting mix of freeze dried and dehydrated meals.
I have to carry at least 2,000 calories per day (competition rules), but I will probably take more than that to avoid starving myself: the average dinner for two in these packs is 800 calories: I burn more than that on my longer mid-week training runs.
I tried to choose only savory options (I'll be eating sweet stuff while running) and avoided rice (which never seems to rehydrate well); the next thing is to find out how they taste...

Fire Island Beach Run

Here are a few photos from my run along the beach at Smith Point last Friday.

I though it might be a good idea to get in a few long runs on the sand and Fire Island provides miles of uninterrupted level beach. I did a run in the soft sand further west during the summer, all that's left following super storm Sandy is firm to hard packed sand, but the run was still very satisfying.

The wind was an icy blast from the west, but as the sun came out and half my run was with the wind behind me it wasn't so bad; having the beach to myself more than made up for it (I didn't see another soul on the sand the whole time I was there).

I started into the wind, but had to turn around after less than a half an hour where the island had been cut in two by Sandy; heading east I ran for another hour and three quarters before once more heading back into the wind to return to my car.

As I ran I found huge empty sections where the dunes had been swept away and large patches of purple, perhaps the remains of ground up clam shells.