Category Archives: Practice

Practice, Running, Training Log

December 1-7 Practice Running

Monday, December 1, 2014, 5:10 pm

5.42 mi, 96 ft gain, 39:31. Through town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I felt great, especially considering yesterday’s 15 miler. I managed a pretty good pace while staying aerobic the whole time. I ran out for 20 minutes, turned around and ran back. It was a great run.

Average HR 137 bpm.

 

Tuesday, December 2, 2014, 4:08 pm

6.38 mi, 265 ft gain, 58:23. Road to Wallace Falls SP, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Decided to wear my wind breaker today. Glad I did. While I did get a little sweaty, the cold wind of the last couple days was worse.

Felt pretty good the whole run. Nothing particularly eventful on the way to the park. Kept it pretty easy. I looped the dogs’ leashes to the bbq grill at the park and used the restroom, then headed back home.

A little ways down he road it started getting dark, so I turned on my headlamp. I don’t really like running with the dogs on roads in the dark since they’re black. Shortly after turning on my headlamp, I was reminded why. A truck was coming towards us so I got off the road onto the small grass shoulder. Most vehicles give me some space. I turned my head so my light was shining toward the driver, but he didn’t move over at all. If I hadn’t made sure to pull Vida all the way off the road, he would have hit her. I pulled her over well before the truck drove by, but it was still a bit unnerving. I’m not sure if the guy didn’t see me, didn’t care or did it on purpose. I’m looking forward to my new headlamp arriving. It’s bright enough that they would have definitely seen me.

The rest of the run was fine.

Average HR 127 bpm.

 

Wednesday, December 3, 2014, 9:09 pm

6.87 mi, 540 ft gain, 1:03:30. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Almost bagged it after the first loop. I didn’t feel that great. I’m glad I kept going, but I only felt moderately better by the end. I settled into a bit slower pace than I have been running.

The weather wasn’t bad tonight, windy and mid 30s. It was so much better than windy and low to mid 20s. It almost felt warm.

Also, I wanted to test my new Fenix E35 flashlight. Even with the cloud cover, the moon was bright enough to go without light. Still tried it out through a couple spots. It’s so bright. I think the medium setting will more than good enough for most of my needs. Looking forward to my new headlamp arriving and getting to use both more.

Average HR 122 bpm.

 

Thursday, December 4, 2014, 3:53 pm

4.47 mi, 34 ft gain, 44:17. Green belt and RR access road, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Felt slow. RR access road to the green belt between the RR and US2 out to the end of the cut grass just outside of town. Then back and hopped over the tracks to run nearer the river a little bit and home.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Friday, December 5, 2014, 4:21 pm

4.16 mi, 38 ft gain, 35:41. Road through town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Felt a lot better today than yesterday. Very windy for most of the run, at my back most of the way out and in my face most of the way home. I think it actually blew harder on my way back. There were a few big gusts that I had to lean into. Without rain and cold, I enjoy running in the wind.

Average HR 125 bpm.

 

Saturday, December 6, 2014, 9:30 am

1.2 mi, 50 ft gain, 9:38. Warmup at Redmond Watershed Preserve, Solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Average HR 140 bpm. For both this race and the last one, my HR was a little high before the race. Anticipation perhaps?

 

Saturday, December 6, 2014, 9:30 am

5 mi, 330 ft gain, 32:58. Redmond Reindeer Romp 5mi Race, Solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I took off out front at the start, but dialed back a little almost immediately. Another guy caught up and went just ahead of me. I sat on his shoulder for a minute or two before I decided to go. I passed him and led for the rest of the race.

A few of the turns were pretty muddy and slick. The trail was pretty well groomed, not many roots or rocks. The course markings were easy to follow.

After a few minutes, I looked back and couldn’t see anyone. I kept looking back later in the race on just about every turn to see if anyone was closing. I caught a glimpse of someone once, but I saw her again later at the start finish line heading out for a second half marathon lap, and the organizers were pretty sure she missed at least one turn for the half marathon course. She wasn’t running nearly hard enough to be halfway done at that time.

I won, finishing in 32:58. Second was about 30 seconds behind. Third place was a 60 year old guy about 2:39 back. I hope I’m still running like that in 27 years.

Top three male and female finishers won reindeer antlers headbands. I also won some socks with a bull reindeer saying “hey girl” to a cow in the raffle.

Average HR shows as 158 bpm, but it looks like the Mio bugged out for about 7 minutes early on dropping from the 150s down to the 110s. When it corrected, I was in the mid 170s.

Saturday, December 6, 2014, 9:30 am

0.26 mi, 44 ft gain, 2:27. Back to the car post race, Solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Just a short run back to where I parked my car. Left my HR monitor off.

 

Saturday, December 6, 2014, 4:09 pm

3.21 mi, 28 ft gain, 27:44. Shakeout run through town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I was rather sore for a few days after the Ravenna race, so I thought I’d head out for a short run to try to work out lactic acid and loosen up. I wanted to get the dogs out for a run as well.

Average HR 129 bpm.

 

Sunday, December 7, 2014, 5:57 pm

10.45 mi, 1597 ft gain, 1:40:41. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1 to Wallace Lake, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I wanted to get out earlier, but I don’t mind going in the dark. I got to test out my new Fenix HL55 headlamp. It was great. I started on the low setting, but ended up switching to mid to better see my dogs. Low was plenty of light to see where to place my feet. I kept it fairly easy pace, trying to stay aerobic on the climb.

I saw a third pair of eyes ahead of my dogs a couple times. Both just turned out to be deer. They were well ahead of my dogs too. The mid light setting worked out great.

The wind was blowing pretty hard at times. Fortunately, it was relatively warm and dry.

I’m not sure if I like how the front plate that attaches the light to the strap sits on my forehead. When I got home, I saw that I had 2 indents on my forehead from it. I might add some foam or something to it.

Average HR 135 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 47 mi, 2943 ft gain

Philosophy, Practice

Practicing Gratitude

1 Comment

I’ve been keeping a gratitude journal for a a little over a year. Everyday, I write down at least five things that I’m grateful for, trying not to repeat things. I think I’ve missed maybe two days in that time.

I started on Black Friday, 2013. My year started out pretty well, but I sort of got into a bit of a funk. As part of trying to make some positive changes, I took the advice of several people from books and videos and started writing some things down.

Usually, it’s one of the first few things I do after I wake up. I write down at least five things, but I’ve written more on a few occasions when it was really flowing.

I don’t just list five things, though. I write out “I’m grateful for/that…” for every single thing. I can’t remember where I heard it first, but I’ve read or heard it several times that the more senses you involve in something, the more impact it has on your mind. That’s why you remember more from lectures when you take notes.

I took a lot of things in life for granted for a long time. I wanted to change that, so everyday I reinforce my gratitude for life.

Here are five extra for today.

1. I’m grateful for my blog as an outlet for some of my thoughts.

2. I’m grateful for how my education helped for my writing ability.

3. I’m grateful for being able to share the beauty of some of the places I go and things I see through photos.

4. I’m grateful for the ability to make conscious choices to create my life.

5. I’m grateful for you.

Practice, Running, Training Log

November 24-30 Practice Running

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

Practice, Running, Training Log

November 17-23 Practice Running

Monday, November 17, 2014, 12:15 pm

4.6 mi, 1866 ft gain, 53:58. Upper Wallace Falls, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Awesome run today. My sleep schedule was even further from where I would like to be, and I got wrapped up in getting some things done, so I ended up staying up. It’s almost 2pm as I write this, and I’ve been up for 23 hours. I’ll stay up at least until dark. I expect to sleep longer than normal, so hopefully I can reset my internal clock.

Anyway, about the run… It’s so nice out, sunny and mid 40s, and I’ve been itching to get back to real trails, so I went out to Wallace Falls. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go early on, but my pace was pretty good. I pushed myself most of the way up and broke my ascent to the Upper falls best time by about 2 minutes. My first time going up in under 30 minutes, 28:35.

I took about 1.5 minutes to catch my breath and rest my legs. Then I took a couple pictures, took off my sweaty base layer to go with just my pullover and took off my gloves. I had already taken off my fleece beanie about 10 minutes in. I guess I was overdressed, but it turned out alright. I ended up spending about 5 minutes at the Upper falls view point before heading back down.

I started heading down kind of slow. Those steps up top are steep and kind of sketchy. Once past them, I started bombing down. I ended up beating my best descent time as well. I could have gone faster. I wanted to break 20 minutes, but missed by 18 seconds. Maybe next time.

The Mio behaved well. Average HR 153 bpm according to Movescount and my Ambit 2 R, 156 bpm according to Strava. Strava only counts during moving time, so it cuts out the break at the top.

 

Tuesday, November 18, 2014, 3:39 pm

3.1 mi, 45 ft gain, 27:47. Green belt in town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Ended up in bed by 8pm last night and up before 6am. Unfortunately, I’ve felt a little run down today. Probably due to staying up so long and yesterday’s hard run. Not too bad, but enough that I decided not to go very far for today’s run.

Nothing particularly noteworthy during the run. Sigurd kept pulling on the leash more than usual. It made it a little harder to keep the pace slower.

Mio was reading high early, then low, then finally right. Average HR 123 bpm.

 

Wednesday, November 19, 2014,  pm

7.19 mi, 72 ft gain, 1:13:40. RR access road through town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I wasn’t sure about where or how far I’d run today. I was about to head out onto US2 after stopping for the dogs to pee and decided to hit the RR access road instead. Down into the park, I hopped over the tracks and ran the other access road that goes into Startup.

The wind was really blowing. When the wind isn’t cold, I find that I really enjoy running in the wind, with, against or at any angle. It mixes things up a bit.

I was going to turn around at 2 mi, then 2.5 mi, then 3 mi and finally decided to turn around at 3.5. On the way back, there was a train going by a little before I got back by the tracks. I turned around and ran back out a little until the train was passed. I didn’t really want to run that close to a moving train with the dogs. Then once I was just nearing the gate to turn along the RR tracks, another train came in the other direction. It was moving slow, so it was probably stopped on the tracks in town waiting for the other one to go by. I think there are 4 lines of tracks on that small stretch.

I ended up only waiting for the engines to go by. It was a short train anyway. After it went by, the wind really picked up. At times, the wind slowed me down by up to 1 min/mi pace. I leaned in and kept going, trying to keep my HR around the same level.
It was a pretty easy day. Average HR 126 bpm.

 

Thursday, November 20, 2014, 3:16 pm

6.40 mi, 269 ft gain, 59:22. Road to Wallace Falls TH & back, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

It’s been a pattern recently. I set out for just a short 3-4 mi run and end up going longer since I feel so good. Nothing really stood out to me during the run. It just felt great.

Once I got to Wallace Falls State Park, I tied the dogs to one of the metal bbq grills and ducked into the bathroom. After a short stop, I grabbed the dogs and headed home.

It was windy again, but not nearly as much as Wednesday. Kept my HR pretty low again. Average 128 bpm.

 

Friday, November 21, 2014,  pm

3.15 mi, 28 ft gain, 25:59. Road through town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Apparently I accidentally hit pause at 2.04 mi and didn’t notice until about 0.3 mi from the end. Distance is a guess based on running this route a number of times.

I considered going longer today, but I’m running an 8k race tomorrow. It was raining too. I’ll probably wear just about the same thing for the race as I did today. It worked pretty well with the rain.

Average HR 135 bpm. This is probably off a bit.

 

Saturday, November 22, 2014, 8:05 am

1.14 mi, 148 ft gain, 12:26. Ravenna Park, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Warmup for the 8k race. I didn’t sleep well at all last night. I got around 3 hours of sleep, waking up once in the middle as well. I woke up at about 3:40 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. I tried writing down the ideas I was having, rolling around to different positions, letting the dogs on the bed, playing games on my phone. I stayed in bed until almost 7am when my alarm was going to go off.

During my short warmup run my HR was elevated significantly from normal, likely due to not sleeping much. Fortunately, I don’t think it really had any effect on my race. I think the Mio was a little buggy as well. There were a couple spikes. Average HR 146 bpm

 

Saturday, November 22, 2014, 8:32 am

5 mi, 480 ft gain, 33:54. Ravenna Refresher 8k race, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I went out fast, probably too fast. I tried to moderate my pace a little at times. Three other guys and I went out sort of together. I tried to hold back a little bit, because I didn’t think I’d be able to keep my starting pace for that long. After the first short climb, I passed two of them on the following downhill. Then there was just one guy in front of me.

I ended up chasing after him for the rest of the race. I kept it pretty close until the last climb of the first lap, when he started to pull away a bit. I think I finished the first lap in about 16:40, which would have won the 4k, though the guy ahead of me was faster by about 20 seconds.

I could tell I slowed down on the second lap. I made a conscious effort to maintain pace as much as I could. Once I hit the flat gravel access road on the bottom, it seemed a lot longer than the first time. I wasn’t that sure about how far out I was once I hit the short asphalt sections. So I didn’t pour it on again until I knew I was just a couple turns away. Then I let it go.

It turned out that the guy ahead of me was running the 12k, so I wasn’t actually racing against him. It was good motivation to push harder, though.

The top 3 male and female finishers of each event, 4k, 8k and 12k, were given a bottle of Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider. I also won a $40 gift card to the Balanced Athlete in the raffle. When they announced my name, they said my finishing time was 33:55.9, but the official results online say 33:54. Either way, I’m happy. I won my first race ever.

The event was well organized. The trail was very well marked and the refreshment area at the finish line was great. I don’t know about the aid station as I blew right by it at the start of my second lap. The only thing that I thought could be better was the other racers. There was very little cheering for other runners as they came around for their next lap or when they finished. I tried to cheer and clap for a little while, expecting that others would join in to no avail. The race staff cheered for people though.

My mile splits, according to Strava, were 6:31, 6:34, 7:02, 6:58, 7:11. Average HR 176 bpm.

1122141626

 

Sunday, November 23, 2014, 3:05 pm

13.16 mi, 478 ft gain, 2:04:36. WFSP, May Creek Rd, home, out & back along US2, Solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I wanted to keep my HR below 140 bpm for the most part. I went up to around 145 bpm on a couple hills, and closer to 150 bpm nearing the end.

I started out not sure which way I was going to go. Once I hit US2, I turned left, partially due to traffic. I went out to Wallace Falls State Park and used the restroom. I then continued around on May Creek Rd and back home. Another pitstop at home, and I went back out. I just ran west along US2 for a couple miles and turned around.

My quads were kind of sore from the race. They haven’t been sore from a run in a long time. My left calf got really tight the last couple miles today. I’m not sure why. It was a little painful toward the end.

With the pit stops, my Average HR 128 bpm. According to Strava, for only moving time, my average HR was 137 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 43.6 mi, 3312 ft gain.

Practice, Running, Training Log

November 10-16 Practice Running

Monday, November 10, 2014, 6:35 pm

4.25 mi, 235 ft gain, 40:20. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

A little colder tonight, so I wore a fleece beanie, a tshirt with my 2011 Mt Si 50k tech pullover and tights over compression shorts. These particular tights are kind of thin, so the compression shorts help with wind. It took about 1.5 mi for my body to warm up and I took my hat off.

I had the least discomfort in my achilles/heel in a long time and only very briefly. I felt great for most of the run. Hopefully it won’t be long until I can really get back to the trails regularly.

Another run with the Mio Link. One brief false HR spike shown on my Suunto. It seemed to be perfect the rest of the time. Average HR was 132 bpm. It’s nice to see that an easy aerobic pace is faster than I thought it would be.

 

Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 3:23 pm

5.06 mi, 90 ft gain, 48:18. Road through town, with dogs. New Balance MR10V2.

It was about as cold when I started today as yesterday, but was supposed to be quite windy. So I added a light wind breaker on top. I warmed up more quickly today. The wind didn’t really start going until about 2 mi. There were some pretty stiff gusts on the way back around 3.5-4.5 mi. It was fun to run in.

The Mio had another false spike today. Suddenly my Suunto showed a HR of over 190 bpm, up from around 130 bpm with out any added effort. Sometime I’ll get the wrist band adjusted right. Too tight seems to be more apt to spikes, and too loose seems to read low sometimes. Average HR of 135 bpm, but the spike around 180-190+ lasted for almost 3.5 min.

 

Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 4:06 pm

8.01 mi, 276 ft gain, 59:37. Long way around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

Compression shorts, tights, long sleeve shirt, wind breaker, fleece beanie, gloves, headlamp, flashlight. It was windy. I wanted to keep my HR closer to max aerobic level today. I wasn’t sure how far I was going to go, at least 5 maybe more.

A little before I got to where I’d turn around for 5 mi, I was feeling pretty good, so I decided I’d keep going. I thought I might turn around once I hit 30 min. But when I got close to that, I figured I may as well run the rest of the way around on May Creek rd.

I bumped up to my max aerobic HR around 4.75 mi. It was during a big wind gust, right after I jumped off the side of the road due to a fast oncoming car coming around a corner. I bumped up to it again around the time I had to cross US2. Then nearing 7 mi, I saw that I was pretty close to finishing 8 mi under 1 hour, so I pushed the pace for just over the last 1 mi. I went up to around 160 bpm for a while, and finished the last 0.1 or so around 165 bpm. I had 23 seconds to spare, so I could have backed off a little. I like to finish strong though. Average HR was 145 bpm.

 

Thursday, November 13, 2014, 4:49 pm

6.40 mi, 280 ft gain, 1:01:15. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

On Monday, I saw a camper and two trucks parked with a generator and lights on just over the bridge at Olney Creek, so I decided to not run that way tonight. I went towards the hill at first instead. Turned around at the 2 mi mark, which is just at the beginning of the hill. Then I went out the other direction on the loop, but turned around at the top of the hill on the other side of the creek.

It took 20 min or so to warm up. The wind storm of the past few days had finally moved on. My lower calves started to get sore, like they were tight around 4.5 mi or so. I think the cold had something to do with it.

Mio link worked fine. It was cold, so I tried to keep the pace and my HR up a little from the easy pace I was falling into to stay warm.   Once I warmed up and when my calves were bothering me, I didn’t keep the same pace. Average HR was 131 bpm.

 

Friday, November 14, 2014, 6:14 pm

6.21 mi, 689 ft gain, 1:08:14. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

Colder for tonights run, but almost no wind. It was like 26f at home when I left, probably 2-3 degrees lower at the tree farm. It took about 20 minutes to warm up to being comfortable. I tried those hand warmer things in my gloves, they lasted about 30-40 minutes. They started to warm up a little again when I got home.

Until I warmed up, I was only going to go 3 mi or so. I was cold and just wanted to go home. But once I warmed up, I felt pretty good. I think I need to find something for better wind protection for my groin and wind resistant gloves. Even just the breeze from running when it’s cold can really cause a chill.

The Mio Link worked fine. Average HR was 136 bpm. I tried to run a little faster early on, so I’d warm up more quickly.

 

Saturday, November 15, 2014, 6:58 pm

6.88 mi, 752 ft gain, 1:17:37. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Got started later than I wanted. I took longer than I wanted when I went to town earlier. Oh well. Just like yesterday, I was considering making it a short run until I warmed up. I took my face mask today and wore it for the first 10 min or so.

I was keeping my pace up to keep my heart rate in the in the 135-145 bpm range, but after the climb up the hill, I fell into a slower pace. My pace in that HR range is a little faster than I’m used to for my easy runs, but seems way too slow and easy on hills. Since it’s in my aerobic zone, I should be able to maintain it for a long time. I think I need to do more faster running to get more used to going a little faster more comfortably. That’s one reason I signed up for 5 shorter races over the next couple months.

Problems with the Mio today. Before I got going, it was reading high, a couple minutes in and it was reading low, then a spike high later. Average HR 129 bpm.

 

Sunday, November 16, 2014, 4:49 pm

8.38 mi, 832 ft gain, 1:19:40. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

It was about 10 degrees warmer than yesterday, but a little breezy. Fortunately, the breeze was sometimes a little bit warm. I left the Nathan vest at home and went with the UD belt. I’d been taking the vest so I could carry leashes and an extra jacket. I haven’t used the leashes all week as no one else has been hardcore/crazy enough to be out in the tree farm in the cold at night, and the dogs have been behaving and not running after wildlife. The vest has also caused my back to sweat, which doesn’t help with the cold later in the run. I still wore the windbreaker, and while I did sweat some still, it wasn’t as bad as the past couple days.

Like the past couple days, I started out thinking I was only going to go for a short run, so I headed around the loop, which would give me about 4.25 mi. When I got back to the “Y”, however, I had warmed up and felt good, so I headed for the hill. At first I was going to go out far enough to hit 10k on the day. I felt even better, so I headed up the hill. I felt good enough to keep going, but decided to turn around at the bottom of one of the climbs on top. I stopped there for a few minutes with my lights off, staring up at the sky. The trees on either side of the logging road were just tall enough to block most of the wind. The stars were amazing.

After one early minor hiccup with the Mio at the beginning, it performed great. Average HR 134 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 45.2 mi, 3267 ft gain.