Monday, October 13, 2014, 5:50 pm

3.19 mi, 28 ft gain, 30:02. Road in town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Right calf sore to start out. Got a little better by about 2 mi. Didn’t really want to stop when I got back home. I have a habit of pushing to hard and paying for it the next day, so I’m going to try to stick somewhat to my plan.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014, 5:36 pm

6.11 mi, 451 ft gain, 59:02. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

Still a little discomfort around my left achilles starting out, but it’s getting better. Right calf a little sore as well, but also getting better. Both loosened up after 10-15 min. Went the opposite way around the loop than I usually do. Took a small out and back on one of the side logging roads. It wasn’t the one that I was looking for, but had a nice view at the top. Very brief stop at Olney creek for the dogs to get some water. Then another out and back on the road towards the hill. Felt pretty good from about 2 miles on.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014, 6:31 pm

8.14 mi, 1091 ft gain, 1:20:30. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

Warmed up about 12-14 minutes in. Wore gloves today. I noticed my hands getting a little stiff during yesterday’s run. Light-weight long sleeve shirt with sleeves rolled up after warming up. Still in shorts. Kind of glad I waited to run today. It was raining most of the day, but none during my run. Ran over the hill and back. Pulled out my headlamp as I was just about to the top the first time. Glad I replaced the batteries before leaving the house. Used my gaiters today, but not sure I really needed them. They’re light enough that I’d rather have them just in case.

Thursday, October 16, 2014, 2:51 pm

3.09 mi, 47 ft gain, 28:22. Green Belt in town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Feeling kind of tight. The last two times I ran up the hill on the tree farm, my legs have felt tired or tight the next day or two. It’s strange because it’s not really any steeper than other hills I run, and not as high as many either. Felt better after finishing though.

Thursday, October 16, 2014, 6:13 pm

6.43 mi, 800 ft gain, 1:01:11.1. Olney Falls DNR rd, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Right calf still a little sore and tight. I’m not sure what the problem is. I had a similar problem earlier in the year that I thought was due to my UD belt being unbalanced, throwing off my gait. I’ve been wearing my Nathan Elevation vest on a number of runs recently. Maybe the weight is off. I’ll have to test some things the next few days and continue with the foam roller.

About 1.2 or so miles from getting back to my car, a red Subaru came up behind me. The same car passed me on Sunday. I was under the impression that people weren’t allowed to drive back there. There isn’t any private land past the first 0.3 mi, just DNR and State Park. The only thing that I can think of is that disabled hunters can get keys to gates for public land. But the guy wasn’t dressed at all like a hunter on Sunday.

Friday, October 17, 2014, pm

6.72 mi, 860 ft gain, 1:03:00. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

Wore my Nathan vest again, but adjusted everything around so the weight was more to the left side. My right calf still bothered me most of the time, but not as much as yesterday. Not sure if the weight balance makes a difference. I may stick to more weight on the left side for a couple runs then try to balance it more evenly. Other than that it was a good run. A little slow start. Drizzling the whole time, with some wind at times. Wore a little heavier long sleeve shirt, sleeves rolled up part of the time. Wore gloves and put on a beanie toward the end when it started raining more. Went with compression shorts today. They work better keeping me warm in the rain and wind.

Saturday, October 18, 2014, 2:25 pm

26.9 mi, 5052 ft gain, 5:06:46. Olney Falls DNR rd, Wallace Lake, Wallace Falls, Wallace Falls TH and back. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

This was my longest non-race run ever. I started at the Olney Falls DNR rd gate in Startup. There was a truck already there. It was kind of slow going for the first 0.5-0.75 mi. My left achilles attachment and right calf were sore for the first 5 mi or so. They started to loosen up a bit at just under 3 mi when I came across a father and son out deer hunting. I slowed down and chatted for a few seconds. After 5 or 6 miles my right calf finally let go and didn’t hurt for the rest of the run. I wore my Nathan vest, but I made sure to balance the weight this time.

It was overcast but clearing up when I started. About 3.5 mi in, I remember looking across the valley and the mountains beyond to the south. Shortly after that I went around a switch back and visibility dropped to about 200 yards. About 5-10 minutes later I could only see about 20 yards ahead. Then a few minutes later I went around another turn and the fog was gone.

I made it to the turn off for the Wallace Falls trailhead that’s actually open at about 7.5 mi and ran into about 4 groups of people. One young woman saw me coming up the road and asked if the other trail was open. She seemed a little disappointed that it wasn’t.

I slowed briefly at Wallace Lake to take in the view, drink some water, eat some dates and pick my way across a large puddle. Then I headed off on the DNR rd to the junction with the Woody trail to the Falls. Not quite a mile later I passed a woman with two dogs, a german shepherd and some sort of small terrier, who was heading toward the lake. They were off leash (not allowed in the state park) but well behaved. Shortly after that I passed a guy balancing on a log across the creek that flows across the road. The creek was higher than it has been due to the recent rain.

At the turn for the Woody trail I saw the same red Subaru. I also saw more timber harvest boundary signs and flagging tape than I’ve seen before. I wonder if he’s up there marking the timber boundaries. There was an excavator there last week.

I headed down the steep trail. There was a group of four people with two dogs, a black lab and a black and white great dane. I only stopped for a few seconds at the upper falls before continuing down the trail.

From here, I don’t really remember how many people I passed. Even though the trail was wet and muddy, there were still quite a few people.

Even though it was fairly muddy, my Altra Superior 1.5s had plenty of traction. They slid a little on the mud and grass on the DNR rd earlier in the run, but not too bad. Mud is the one surface that I wasn’t sure how these shoes would handle.

I made it to the trail head at 13.44 mi in 2:30. I stopped, had some dates, had a little water from the fountain and refilled my hydration bladder. I put my head under the water fountain to cool down a little; it was warmer than I expected and I wore a long sleeve shirt because it was supposed to rain. After about 3-4 minutes I headed back out.

I saw a bunch of people that I had passed on my way down on my way back up. I also came across a county sheriff in uniform coming down the trail carrying a closed paper bag. A little while later, I saw the young woman who asked about the other trail. She and the guy she was hiking with were surprised to see me again.

Heading up the Wallace Falls trail is way steeper than the DNR rd on the Olney falls side. They’re about the same elevation gain though. I did some power hiking on the steeper parts, way more than I usually do when I run up to the the falls, but I was about 15 mi in. I stopped for a minute at the upper falls. They were roaring pretty well with all the rain we’ve had. The mist coming off the falls felt great.

It took a few minutes to get back into a rhythm once I got back up to the DNR rd. My ankles were starting to get kind of sore. They didn’t really hurt but were tired, and I could feel the miles and downhill.

I made it to about 20 mi by sunset. I kept going for another half hour or so before getting out my headlamp and flashlight. I slowed down a bit once it was dark, being a little more careful of my footing on the uneven surface. At about 23 mi, I saw two people off the road in the woods with flashlights. It looked like the two hunters I saw earlier. I wondered if they shot a deer or were camping for the night to hunt in the morning.

With about 1 mi to go, I saw something reflective on both sides of the road. There’s a gate near there, so I thought it might be the gate posts at first. But it was too early for the gate. After coming across a cougar in the area recently, I stopped for a few seconds, and made some noise. Then I realized they were deer, and I saw two more 10-20 yards farther down the road. They moved off to the uphill side into the brush. There were five in total.

My feet were pretty sore by the end. I felt pretty good though. I ran out of water a couple minutes before the end. My split for the 2nd half was only 2-3 minutes slower than the 1st half.

I stopped at the grocery store in town on the way home. I’m sure I stunk, but I didn’t want to make another trip once I got home.

Sunday, October 19, 2014, 5:53 pm

4.16 mi, 37 ft gain, 41:35. Road in town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Slow, stiff going the first mile plus. Lots of traffic on US2 from weekend travelers going home. Enough that I had no trouble crossing. I was even passing cars for a while. My legs felt mostly fine. My right calf was back to normal, so maybe weight balance actually does make a difference. Both achilles were sore though, left more than right. I think I figured out that it might be the beginnings of haglund’s deformity. Hopefully I can deal with it now before it gets bad. I think it’s from the rigid heel cups in both the models of Altra shoes I wear rubbing on where the achilles attaches to the heel. It seemed to recover a bit during stretches of wearing my NB road shoes, which don’t really have a heel cup, and the heel uppers are pretty soft and flexible. Started to feel a little better just after turning around, heading for home.

Weekly totals: 64.8 mi, 8456 ft gain