Monday, November 24, 2014, 5:47 pm

4.27 mi, 317 ft gain, 53:08. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Legs are still a little sore from the race and yesterday. There was a little drizzle and a bit of fog when I started today. It all lifted about halfway through. I got a weather advisory on my phone earlier warning of potential flooding from heavy rains tonight. I’m grateful they hadn’t come in yet.

I had some GI distress and had to stop to take care of it. It was a much longer stop than usual. But I felt so much better afterwards. The dogs kept getting farther ahead than I like and chased after some critters a couple times.

My legs loosened up about 3 mi in or so, and I sped up a bit. I started out keeping my HR below 130 bpm, by the time I was warmed up, I went up closer to 140 bpm. I wonder if paying this much attention to my HR is even making any difference. If I go by heart rate zones, I’m finding that I can actually go faster than I thought while remaining in a given zone.

Average HR with the stop 114 bpm, moving time HR 129 bpm.

 

Tuesday, November 25, 2014, 4:42 pm

6.20 mi, 386 ft gain, 53:28. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Went counter clockwise around the loop and then out toward the hill. Quads were still a little sore, but I felt great endurance-wise and had plenty of energy. I kept the pace up a little bit without really trying.

Average HR 138 bpm.

 

Wednesday, November 26, 2014, 6:48 pm

4.36 mi, 305 ft gain, 41:24. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I didn’t feel as great as Tuesday. Legs were more recovered, but I just didn’t really get into the run. The dogs not listening very well didn’t help. I had planned to go at least 6 mi, but called it since I wasn’t really feeling it.

Average HR 131 bpm.

 

Thursday, November 27, 2014, 3:37 pm

9.01 mi, 1393 ft gain, 1:35:05. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1 to Wallace Lake, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Felt pretty good today. I didn’t push too hard up the hill towards the lake. I ended up going uphill with my HR around 155 bpm +/- a few. I kept it below 150 bpm until it started getting a little steeper.

The lake was kind of high. The road was covered in water near the north end, so I didn’t go out to the beach. From the sound of running water coming from that direction, I think the creek was full anyway, so I wouldn’t have been able to reach the beach.

It was getting pretty dark when I turned around at the lake. I managed to go a mile or so without needing any light, but turned on both my headlamp and flashlight, since there are some errant larger rocks on the road back down. No problems going down. I even let go and bombed down a couple times.

Average HR 135 bpm.

 

Friday, November 28, 2014, 6:54 pm

8.07 mi, 1111 ft gain, 1:16:59. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I’m writing this several days after the fact, so I don’t remember much about the run. It was dark. I ran over the hill and back.

Average HR 133 bpm.

 

Saturday, November 29, 2014, 4:25 pm

7.03 mi,  ft gain, 1:12:52. Olney Falls DNR Rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

It was pretty cold. It had snowed overnight, and the temperature was dropping. There had been some flooding this week.  Water was just barely flowing over the road less than a mile in. I stopped and thought about turning back for a brief moment and decided to go. Somehow I managed to keep my feet dry.

Olney falls was roaring from the recent rains, so much that the bridge at the base was shaking. A little past the hill to the east of Olney falls I started to run into a little more snow. The DNR road was still bare though. On my way back down, I caught some views of the sunset with snow covered trees. It was incredibly uplifting.

Average HR 126 bpm.

 

Sunday, November 30, 2014, 5:49 pm

15.10 mi, 2442 ft gain, 2:45:34. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1 to Wallace Lake & over the hill, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I wasn’t sure exactly how sure I was going to run. I wanted to do at least 12 mi or so. I tried to keep my HR under 140 bpm, except on the climbs, where I kept it below 150 bpm. I think it was partially due to the relatively easy pace, but I felt great the entire time.

There was some snow on the sides of the road (logging roads) the whole way. And it was cold and windy. I probably should have pulled out my jacket a couple times. Up on top of the two hills, it got cold and very windy.

At about 3.5 mi into the run, just past the last clear cut of the tree farm before the DNR gate, snow started to cover over the road. With the snow and the bright moon, I went without lights for a good portion of the run.

This was my first run in the snow of the season. It was a ton of fun, especially downhill. My Altra Superior 1.5s did just fine. I wasn’t sure how the tread would handle the snow, but I had no problems.

Once I hit the intersection at the corner by Wallace lake, I headed out into the clear cut overlooking the valley instead of continuing by the lake. With the building and car lights along the US2 corridor, the mountains, snow, stars and moon, it was an amazing view.

I quickly started to get cold though, so I headed back down. I still wasn’t sure how much farther or where else I was going to run. Once I got to the road toward the connector hill, I decided to head out that direction a ways. I didn’t decide to go all the way to the other side until I hit about the point where I’d have run 13.1 mi if I headed back. That was also about the point when I decided that maybe I should drink some water. It was so cold, though, that my water line had frozen. I wasn’t really sweating nor that thirsty, so I just went with it.

Again, at the top of the hill, I started to get cold, not so much the way out, but more the way back. And the road between the hill and the main road is usually colder than other spots in that area. My hands really started to get cold, and it started spreading a little bit. I decided to pick up the pace a little bit. With about a mile left or so, I had to make more of a conscious effort to keep the pace. I went the entire time without any food or water. I had 3 bananas and some water about an hour before running. Toward the end, I could feel my energy level dropping. But I finished fine. I think I’ll start carrying a little bit of food just in case.

I’ve had nausea problems when I didn’t keep up enough calories on long runs in the past. I don’t think I stayed aerobic on those runs, and I’m in a lot better shape now too.

It was an amazing run, even with the cold. And the dogs loved running around in the snow as much as I did.

Average HR 129 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 54.1 mi, 7201 ft gain