Category Archives: Training Log

Running, Training Log

May 4-10 Practice Running

I’ve fallen way behind writing my training logs. Rather than try to catch up, I’m just going to post what I have.

Monday, May 4, 2015, 7:30 pm
5.4 mi, 734 ft gain, 1:16:28. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with Sigurd. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #3.

Average HR 118 bpm.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015, 6:40 pm
3.16 mi, 28 ft gain, 26:27. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

Average HR 134 bpm.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015, 7:49 pm
3.17 mi, 28 ft gain, 26:58. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

Average HR 133 bpm.

Thursday, May 7, 2015, 6:28 pm
11.10 mi, 815 ft gain, 1:55:39. Wallace Falls SP RR grade, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

Average HR 135 bpm.

Friday, May 8, 2015, 6:27 pm
9.18 mi, 2330 ft gain, 1:59:33. Wallace Lake and Falls(15) Loop, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #3.

Average HR 143 bpm.

Saturday, May 9, 2015, 7:46 pm
4.04 mi, 632 ft gain, 52:29. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #3, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #3.

Average HR 130 bpm.

Sunday, May 10, 2015, 8:15 pm
3.15 mi, 28 ft gain, 26:10. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

Average HR 133 bpm.

Weekly totals: 42.2 mi, 4511 ft gain

Running, Training Log

April 27-May 3 Practice Running

Monday, April 27, 2015, 7:02 pm

3.12 mi, 136 ft gain, 51:12. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

Today was pretty rough, though not as bad as I expected. My left knee is pretty sore on the inside where I smacked it against a rock from a fall when I went up the Lake Isabel trail. My achilles attachment points are pretty sore too. Other than that, my legs are tired and generally fatigued. Overall, I felt a little better than after the 7 hour race in September.

I took it quite slow, not that I could have run much faster even if I wanted. We went out to Olney Creek. The dogs splashed around a bit. On the way back to the car, we went out the road in the clearcut towards the little hill. We went far enough to break 3 mi by the end of the run.

Average HR bpm 111.

 

Tuesday, April 28, 2015, 6:48 pm

3.19 mi, 28 ft gain, 30:56. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I was a little better today overall, but not much faster. There was a little bit of doms, though. I’m surprised my muscles weren’t a lot more sore.

I took my normal route around town. The first mi was about 10:20, second at 9:18, third at 9:05. I really had to use a restroom by the end, so I managed to speed up for the last bit, going 7:49/mi pace.

Average HR 124 bpm.

 

Wednesday, April 29, 2015, 6:53 pm

3.23 mi, 310 ft gain, 50:19. Reiter gate #1, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

I was better today again. My mental state wasn’t quite as good, though. I tend to go through a rough patch with motivation and emotions related to running for a few days up to a week or so after a tough race.
I don’t like being stuck doing short, easy runs. I wrote a little about that during my taper. It’s the same during recovery. The physical pain, discomfort and soreness suck too. But I think the biggest factor is my body not cooperating. The pain and discomfort would be tolerable if I could still move like normal. Being limited to less than I know I’m capable, and less than I’m used to doing is tough. I sometimes wonder whether it’s worth doing at all if I can’t perform up to my personal standard. It’s tough to moderate my expectations, even knowing how recovery normally goes and how long it takes.

Anyway, I didn’t want to run on asphalt and concrete, so I took the dogs out to Reiter. I stuck to the flats. Once out to the fork at the edge of the powerline cut, we went straight on the road into the woods instead of up the hill the other way. I wanted to see where it went. After a side trip on an older, partially overgrown loop, we followed the road out to where it meets May Creek. The road appeared to continue beyond, but there was no way to cross without getting wet, which I didn’t really want to do. I’ll check it out another time. Then we went up another fork in the road, which ran into the creek again upstream a ways. There was a little more uphill than I planned, but it wasn’t bad.

On the way back, there were two guys walking out towards the creek. Vida ran up barking, then backed away. Sigurd barked a little, but was more interested in the beer can one of the guys had in his hand. That it was beer didn’t matter to Sigurd. He’s always curious about things people carry.

I’m looking forward to being fully recovered and new adventures.

Average HR 118 bpm.

 

Thursday, April 30, 2015, 6:34 pm

4.57 mi, 38 ft gain, 42:36. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I felt like going farther today. I thought about turning around at 20 min, but decided to go a little farther to the next road. I went a little faster today. Starting to feel a bit better.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Friday, May 1, 2015, 7:05 pm

6.3 mi, 65 ft gain, 1:08:24. RR access rd, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I wanted to go a little longer today and to get off the roads. I went for the railroad access roads instead. Gravel is better than asphalt and concrete. I wasn’t fast, but it was nice to go a little longer.

I had to make a brief pitstop, I waited until I was passed the gate a ways and found a spot in the woods. Shortly after I got back on the  access road I came across a deer up ahead. It ran ahead a little ways then jumped off the side onto someone’s driveway and into their yard.

I was a bit more tired than normal by the end. There’s definitely still fatigue from the race left in my muscles.

Average HR 129 bpm.

 

Saturday, May 2, 2015, 6:50 pm

4.64 mi, 204 ft gain, 59:10. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #3.

Out into the woods (well some woods and some clear cuts). A little better everyday. I still took it easy.

We went out to the seasonal ponds. The dogs played around a bit, then we went to Olney Creek. More playing around for the dogs. Then we finished out the loop and headed back for the car.

Average HR 111 bpm.

 

Sunday, May 3, 2015, 6:22 pm

11.16 mi, 823 ft gain, 2:01:09. Through town to WFSP RR Grade, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

My legs were still a little tired, but definitely getting there. I wanted to go a bit longer today and maybe get on the trails a little, so I headed for Wallace Falls State Park.

I’m getting kind of tired of the roads, even on the way to the park today. I kept it fairly easy. My time to the park was maybe a minute or two slower than normal. I got a little water, signed the register and headed out.

I went up the railroad grade. I saw a couple people in the first mile or so. It was nice to do a little climbing and get out on the trails, even if it was railroad grade.

I made a pitstop at the restroom at the end of the trail, then headed back. Going back wasn’t bad. The legs were still more tired than normal but felt fairly good. I feel like I’m getting back to normal with today’s run.

I’ve started to notice that this particular pair of shoes has a little bit of a manufacturing defect. The seem inside where the footbed meets the upper and lower around the outside is slightly raised in places. It’s not too noticeable on short runs. It becomes kind of apparent on longer runs, though. Maybe that’s why they discontinued the model.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 36.2 mi, 1576 ft gain

Running, Training Log

April 20-26 Practice Running

Monday, April 20, 2015, 7:02 pm

4.5 mi, 771 ft gain, 1:08:22. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

Vida seemed ok all day while I was working in the yard and the dogs were outside with me. So I brought both with me on the run today.

I was still just a little achey overall, but certainly doing better. I didn’t notice any issues with my piriformis until about 0.75 mi in. Even then, it wasn’t much of a problem. I only noticed it for a minute or two, then not again until 2.66 mi.

We took the newer road at about 0.25 mi again. We stopped briefly to look at the tree I thought might be cherry. I looked again, and it looks even more like it to me this time. It’s way too tall to be a domesticated cherry tree. It’s probably some sort of wild cherry. I’m looking forward to seeing what it actually is, assuming they don’t log back there before then.

We went out to the end of the road. On the way back, I looked for a decent route to go up the hill off trail. We ended going up about the same place we tried last time. I decided that we were going to go all the way to the top. I’m not sure I’ll do that again. It was fine most of the way, even when it got really steep. But once I got near the top and it started to level out, we ran into the more recent regrowth that I knew was going to be there. The first part wasn’t too bad, lots of brittle, dry and rotten small deadfall and snags. Then came the blackberries. I saw at least 3 different types of blackberry vines. There were lots of Oregon grape too. They’re more of an annoyance than a hinderance though. The last 10-20 yards through last year’s clear cut was the worst.

We made it to the road across the top just near the top of the steep climb near the top on the east side. I briefly considered going out to the other end of the hill, but decided against it. If it weren’t race week, I would have. I’m getting a lot more patient with tapers.

I kept the pace pretty easy, even on the downhill. We stopped for a little bit at the seasonal pond. The water level was up a little bit. It was probably even higher after the rain early last week. There’s more rain in the forecast for the better part of the next week.

I threw a stick for Vida. She didn’t see it land a little behind her when she was running out in the water. Instead, she went for another “stick”, a 10 ft long 3 in diameter log. She struggled briefly to free it from a small tangle, then she pulled it about 10 yds across the pond. I tried to get my phone out quickly to get a photo. I managed to get one before she dropped it, but she was behind some bushes, so it wasn’t that great.

We continued back to the car at a comfortably easy pace. I sped up briefly just to see how my legs felt. They were ok. I think a little bit of the soreness is the new exercises I’ve been doing. They seem to be working too.

Average HR 120 bpm.

 

Tuesday, April 21, 2015, 6:28 pm

3.16 mi, 28 ft gain, 25:31. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I’m behind on my write-ups again, and I forgot most of the details.

I felt alright. My piriformis was a little irritated, but not bad. I ran negative mile splits and sped up a little more at the end.

Average HR 143 bpm.

 

Wednesday, April 22, 2015, 5:42 pm

4.52 mi, 226 ft gain, 50:28. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

Vida seemed to be doing ok, so I took her and Sigurd out on an easy run today. We went out to the seasonal ponds. The water is still up a little. I put the log she grabbed the other day back in the water and threw a rock at it. I had my phone ready for a photo this time, and Vida grabbed the log again. I got a pretty good photo too.

Next, we went out to Olney Creek for a couple minutes. Then we continued around the loop. I haven’t felt very fast, and my legs are still a little off. I felt the same way before the Lord Hill 50k too. I was good on race day, though, at least until I blew up on the third lap from going too hard early.

I kept the pace pretty easy mostly. I picked up the pace a couple times to stretch out the legs a little.

The other day I thought I was good with the taper. Today it’s apparent that I’m not. I’m over the stage of being super anxious to run longer or harder. But I haven’t had the same desire to run. I’m a little short on motivation for these short runs. They just don’t seem to do it for me. Just a few more days to race day. But then I’ll be stuck back to short and easy for a while again. It won’t be too long though.

Average HR 124 bpm.

 

Thursday, April 23, 2015, 6:49 pm

4.17 mi, 33 ft gain, 34:33. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

Another day of little motivation. I had little issue with my piriformis starting out, it was a little worse later, but not bad.

I ran out to the road just past 2 mi and turned around. I had started feeling better by then, but kept it short again. The thought of not running in races has crossed my mind, just sticking to adventures of my own. It wouldn’t really change the need for a taper before a really long adventure, though. It would make scheduling and such more simple. If I do things on my own, I can do them whenever and wherever I want. When I run races, I have to find a race that I want to run, make sure I’m free when it happens, and go to the predetermined location. The location usually isn’t a problem. If it was, I wouldn’t sign up. But with something like the Capitol Peak 50 mi, I probably wouldn’t have chosen a race down there by Olympia if I didn’t need a qualifying race for Cascade Crest.

On the way back home, my legs were a little heavy and stiff. I realized that the backward part of my stride might have become a little exaggerated at the expense of the upward and forward motion of my knees. I don’t know, but I had less discomfort from the piriformis issue when I tried a higher knee lift, focussing more on raising my leg ahead of me than pushing off, which was how I ran in the past. I’m not sure about changing something this close to race day, but it’ll be something to think about if I have problems during the race.

When I got to about 0.3 mi from my house, the sun was shining through an opening in the clouds. It had been lightly raining for much of the run, and the rest of the sky looked pretty ominous. The sun breaking through was just enough to cast a rainbow ahead of me. It appeared to touch down in my back yard. It was kind of a weak rainbow, but it was beautiful nonetheless.

Average HR 140 bpm.

 

Friday, April 24, 2015, 7:42 pm

3.14 mi, 28 ft gain, 24:09. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

Another short run to get out and keep my legs moving. I ran a bit faster than normal. But my legs felt pretty good.

Average HR 145 bpm.

 

Saturday, April 25, 2015, 12:41 pm

3.16 mi, 28 ft gain, 26:46. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

One more short run around town before the race. I went earlier in the day so I could finish getting things together and drive down to drop off the dogs at their mom’s place to play with other dogs instead of laying around my house all day with a couple short breaks let outside by the neighbor kid.

I think the HR monitor read too high for a little while, so the stated average is high. My legs felt ok. However, I haven’t felt that great for most of the taper. I felt better the couple times I ran harder with some uphills. Apparently, it’s normal to feel kind of crappy during a taper, and I remember feeling like this during a couple previous tapers too.

Average HR 145 bpm.

 

Sunday, April 26, 2015, 6:00 am

50 mi, 7864 ft gain, 10:21:11. Capitol Peak 50 mi, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

I’ll write a full race recap soon. The important thing was that I finished and got my Cascade Crest 100 qualifier.

Average HR 142 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 72.7 mi, 8896 ft gain

Running, Training Log

April 13-19 Practice Running

Monday, April 13, 2015, 6:00 pm

3.15 mi, 28 ft gain, 25:19. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

The piriformis issues are a little better today, but I definitely need to work on some mobility, R.O.M. and flexibility.

It was raining pretty good today. The entire front of my body was absolutely soaked. My back was nearly bone dry. I doubt that would have lasted that much longer, though.
The pace was pretty good. I didn’t push too hard. I didn’t really pay that much attention to my HR or pace. I looked at my pace a number of times, but it was curiosity more than for pacing.

I wasn’t really that in the mood to run today, which hasn’t happened in a long time. The weather was part of it. My piriformis issues are probably part of it too, but there was more to it than that. Like always, I felt better after than before.

Average HR 137 bpm.

 

Tuesday, April 14, 2015, 4:32 pm

6.46 mi, 1573 ft gain, 2:01:29. Reiter dnr roads and abandon trail, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

I was talking to on of the women who works at the grocery store today. She mentioned that she saw me running over the weekend. She also mentioned that she used to walk out on the DNR roads off Reiter Rd. I’ve meant to go out there sometime, and this was just enough to finally head out there.

I parked at the first gate with a Discover Pass sign that I saw. Looking at maps and reading about trails, I knew that the trail up to Isabel Lake was somewhere off this road. I hadn’t planned going up there, though.

It was raining when I started. I kind of figured it would, so I wore a heavier long sleeve shirt, gloves and a fleece hat.

When we got to the first intersection just past the power lines, I saw some trails that went straight out toward the mountains. I decided to check that out before going farther up the road around the corner. I found some old camp sites, but not much else.

I made my way back to the road past the switchback where I went into the woods. The road starts to climb some, but it’s not that steep. A little farther up the road, the rain mostly stopped and the sun started to peek through some breaks in the clouds. The views across the valley to Mt. Persis and Mt. Index were awesome most of the way up the road. It was cool to get another perspective of the mountains. The mountains got a nice dusting of snow over the weekend, so they were particularly incredible, even with the clouds obscuring the peaks. The rain and snow over the weekend made the way down the mountain into a lot of little waterfalls over the rock faces and around trees on the uphill side of the road. I kept stopping for photos.

I also looked around quite a bit. When I got to the next switchback, past a big red metal gate, I saw a trail that kept going straight. I decided to go out that way to check it out. At first, it looked like an old 4×4 track going around in the woods. I followed it uphill for a while, then went off trail some. I couldn’t see anywhere else to keep going uphill, so I went back down. When I got back down to the trail, I saw that it kept going out relatively straight from the road, so I decided to follow it for a while.

The trail was certainly not maintained, and probably hadn’t been so in a number of years. It was still relatively easy to follow, though not always easy running, or even hiking. I came across a spot that someone had told me about several weeks ago. There were a bunch of CMU blocks lining the trail, turned with the holes up and down. At least some seemed to be cemented in place. It was about 20-30 yards of the trail on the way down to a creek crossing.

I followed the trail a lot longer than I had planned. But I was really just exploring anyway, and didn’t actually have much of a plan. There was one really steep part, but it wasn’t very long. Going up wasn’t much of a problem. Going down was tough. It was already slippery, but there were fallen branches all over too. Landing on those made it quite difficult to stay in control. I took that section pretty slowly on the way down.

I made it all the way up to another old logging road, where I lost the trail. It didn’t continue straight across, and I didn’t find it within 100 yards to the right or 300 yards to the left, so I turned around.

Like I already mentioned, it was slick and all the fallen branches just added to the difficulty on the way down. I managed not to fall at all, but  I came close several times. There was one spot in particular where I got kind of lucky. I started sliding going downhill just before a log partway across the trail at just above knee height. If I had slid into it the way I was going, it could have been really bad. I took it easy most of the rest of the way back down.

The weather was pretty erratic the whole time. Rain to start, then some sun breaks. While I was in the woods on the trail, it hailed three separate times. Once I got back to the road, there were clouds going up the valley and fog with the sun shining through down the valley. The sun coming through the fog was inspiring. There was no way a photo would have captured it.

I took it easy down the road too. I took a shortcut trail to the other road before reaching the switchback. Usually I wouldn’t take the shortcut and miss out on the mileage, but I’m not too concerned with the distance leading up to Capitol Peak 50 mi.

My piriformis was a little rough today, maybe slightly better than yesterday. I’m sticking with the exercises and stretching.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Wednesday, April 15, 2015, 6:19 pm

6.32 mi, 261 ft gain, 1:00:34. Through town to WFSP & back, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

It was a little better today. I took it easy again. I managed to keep a moderate pace and not speed up much today. I usually end up going faster on days when I go without the dogs. Today, though, once I warmed up, I settled into an easy pace.

I went out to WFSP. I saw a deer on the gravel road on the left at the bottom of the hill up to the parking lot. I stopped and looked briefly before continuing up the hill. I used the restroom and got some water before I headed back.

There was a second deer about 10 yards above the gravel road in the brush when I got back down there. It appeared to be a yearling. It looked at me off and on while browsing on some new blackberry vine growth. The doe was hiding behind a stump.

Other than going down the hill from the park and the short hill where the sidewalk starts up, I kept the same easy pace on the way home.

Average HR 126 bpm.

 

Thursday, April 16, 2015, 6:34 pm

4.51 mi, 722 ft gain, 1:15:02. Reiter Foothills, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

I wanted to do some more exploring in the Reiter foothils today. I parked at the same gate as before. Rather than taking the road out, I turned onto an old road that was closed off with tank traps. I made it a couple minutes before I realize that I forgot to put out my parking pass, so I turned around and went back to the car. Chances are that I wouldn’t have gotten a ticket, but I’d rather not worry about it.

I took the same old road on my way back out again. It turned out to be a shortcut out to the powerline road. I went right on the powerline road, which turns into an old 4×4 trail, big rocks and hills. I actually came across another guy running. Miraculously, the dogs didn’t bark or run up to him at all. I asked if the road he came in on went all the way down. He said that it did, down to Reiter Rd.

I continued following the 4×4 trail. It followed the powerlines for a little while, then went up into the woods. Eventually it winds around to the same trail I followed a couple days ago that went out from a switchback on the road. I decided to turn around and go back down the way I came.

I went back down to the powerlines. I ended up taking another trail up from the powerlines. It connected back to the road down below the gate. I followed the road back down to the bottom. Instead of going back to the car, I followed the road the other way out into the woods to check it out a bit. I went out about 0.3 mi, took another trail loop through the woods, then headed back for the car.

After we got back to the car, I decided to drive farther out Reiter Rd. I wanted to see where the other gates and roads were. I’ve been out there before, but it was at least a year ago. This time I knew what I was looking for too.

Average HR 127 bpm.

 

Friday, April 17, 2015, 5:47 pm

7.09 mi, 2115 ft gain, 2:12:02. Reiter Foothills & almost Lake Isabel, solo. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

The weather was great, and I was feeling pretty good. I went back out to the Reiter area. I planned to check out more of the powerline roads.

I took the same tank-trap shortcut road again and continued up and down the same old 4×4 trails. I meant to take one of the other turns to continue along the powerlines, but I missed them. I kept looking for another, but didn’t see anymore once I got into the woods. Once I got up to the trail that goes off the road at the switchback, I debated which way to go. I had already been up to the right, so I decided to take the road up farther.

I went up past the next fork, going straight where there was another switchback to the right. I got up to the next switchback and saw a cairn where another road/trail continued straight. I wasn’t exactly sure, but I thought it was probably the Lake Isabel trail. I thought that I’d maybe go looking for the trail. When I found it, I decided to check it out.

The first half or so was pretty good for a trail that hasn’t been maintained in years. There were some short, very steep sections too. Up higher, there were a lot of blow-downs, and many very slick and moss covered rocks and old logs. Much of the upper portion of the trail is not exactly runnable. I stopped and moved some of the blow-downs off the trail. I slipped and fell once. There were two 3-4 ft long flat rocks coming together in a shallow V-shape sloping downhill. They were wet and slick. I slipped and came down on my left knee right at the V. It hurt, but not too bad. I took a moment to see how it felt. It was sore, but I could move fine. I went slowly until the pain subsided a few minutes later.

Going up even farther, the trail was rather difficult to follow in places. Sometimes splitting into several paths going around obstacles. Other times it seemed to disappear for a short while.

There were a couple creek crossings that didn’t have much water in them, but they were on very steep, uneven terrain, and many of the rocks aren’t very stable. Even without much water, I took it slowly. I was much more deliberate and careful after falling.

Since I hadn’t planned attempting to run up to Lake Isabel, I hadn’t planned ahead and didn’t have a light. I was running out of daylight, and it gets dark quick in those kind of woods, especially tucked away in a draw like that. I kept going until the trail started to get really rough. There wasn’t actually much of a trail at all. I had enough time that if I had trouble with the trail on the way down, I should have still been able to at least make it back to the logging road before dark.

I actually did have a little trouble on the way back down not long after turning around. I lost the trail for a few minutes, but I knew the general direction, down and left. I knew I’d run into it again eventually. I decided to try out the navigation features on my Ambit 2 R to get there more quickly. I was pretty close.

I was careful going over the slick rocks, logs and blowdowns. I opened it up a little more once I got back to the part of the trail in better condition. I still took it easy on a couple of the really steep parts. Even without the slick rocks and logs, traction wasn’t great.

I had a great time going up and down the trail, even if I didn’t make it to the lake. I got back to the DNR road in time for a fantastic sunset. The sun was glowing red low above the horizon. I ran harder downhill to get to a good view point. I managed to get to one just as the sun was passing behind a thin band of cloud. I took some photos. The better ones, zoomed in, were a little grainy. I think I’m going to get an actual camera to take photos. The camera on my phone is pretty good most of the time, but zoomed in and low light photos usually aren’t good.

I continued to follow the road back instead of going back on the old 4×4 trails. But I didn’t take the road all the way. I took the shortcut trail under the powerline tower a little ways down from the gate. The trail was kind of steep and over some slick rock. It came out pretty close to the tank-trap road I came in on, so I took it back out.

Once I got home and saw my GPS tracks, I saw that I turned around about 0.3 mi and 400 ft elevation short of the lake. I kind of figured I was about that close from what I saw ahead compared to descriptions I’ve read online. Oh well. I’ll make it next time.

Average HR 134 bpm.

 

Saturday, April 18, 2015, 7:18 pm

3.19 mi, 28 ft gain, 27:18. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I was a little achey today. Nothing was particularly sore or hurt, just a general feeling. The stretching and exercises have helped my piriformis quite a bit.

I kept it nice and easy. I’m starting to not like the way the sidewalks are slanted. I end up evening it out on the round trip, but going that long running on a slant in either direction is a little uncomfortable. There’s not much I can do about it running the pavement around here, though.

I saw a nickel in the gutter by one of the restaurants. I left it on the way out. I almost forgot about it on the way back. I went a little past the turn before I remembered. I wouldn’t have bothered, but it looked kind of old. It turned out to be a 1946, one year off from being part silver.

It was a good run. The weather was great, and my legs felt better by the end.

Average HR 129 bpm.

 

Sunday, April 19, 2015, 6:53 pm

5.47 mi, 1392 ft gain, 1:23:54. Reiter Powerlines, with Sigurd. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

Vida was limping again last night, so I left her home. It’s strange that she seems fine during the day, but not at night. And it feels weird to only take one dog with me.

I wanted to check out more of the powerline roads today, like I had planned before. On the drive out, I saw 4 or 5 cars parked at the gate where I’ve been parking, so I went to the next gate. I didn’t know until I parked, but there was a creek running across the gated road just past the gate. I went upstream through the brush a little ways to a narrower spot to cross. I’m pretty sure this was where the other runner I saw a while back came up from.

I took a right on the powerline roads. I wasn’t exactly sure which way to go, but I knew which way took me up the hill, away from the powerlines, so I took a trail going the other way at the base of one of the towers. It was kind of steep, went down to another creek crossing and connected to another gravel road. It was fairly steep going farther up along the powerlines.

There was another down and up with another creek crossing and some water running down one of the older roads. Some of the roads are basically just atv trails now. One section has been cut deeply into the hillside. There are a couple very steep parts too. They were lots of fun.

The trail cut across another couple roads that went off in either direction across the powerline cut. Sometime I’ll check them out too. Looking at a map after I got home, the higher road goes from Reiter Rd out quite a ways. It’s a very nice, wide gravel road.

I continued up a little trail to the very top. It’s a cool little ridge with views on three sides. There’s an atv trail that continues up the ridge into the woods. I followed it for a while. It got narrower and narrower, with more blow-downs. Eventually it was pretty tough to follow. I didn’t really know the area, or I would have continued for a while. There wasn’t much underbrush, so it probably wouldn’t have been too difficult. More looking at the map showed me that I wasn’t that far from the top of the Index Town Wall, or that same really nice gravel road that I crossed. Good info for the future.

I had a lot of fun on the way back running down the hills. And the views of the sunset were great nearly the whole way down. I took a couple of different paths through the maze of atv trails. I also followed one of the roads into the woods out to a switchback. I think the road kept going out as well. Another route to check out some other time.

I made good time on the way back. I really like running out there. There are more other people out there than I care for since I like to let my dogs run off leash, but I’ve only seen that other runner and another guy in the distance in all the times I’ve been out there. I’m sure I’ll run into more people in the future. And they were very well behaved when we crossed paths with the other guy running.

It was a good run, though a little shorter than I planned. I should be in great shape for Capitol Peak 50 Mile next Sunday. And I broke 100,000 ft elevation gain so far for the year. I’m a little behind my goals for both mileage and elevation gain at the moment. I finished much stronger than I started last year, and I have plenty of time.

Average HR 140 bpm. I didn’t feel like I was working as hard as my HR suggests, but I guess the climbing can do that.

 

Weekly totals: 36.2 mi, 6063 ft gain.

Running, Trail run, Training Log

April 6-12 Practice Running

Monday, April 6, 2015, 5:59 pm

4.74 mi, 330 ft gain, 1:14:04. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

I took it pretty easy today. We went out to the seasonal ponds. The dogs splashed around a bit. Then we went out to Olney Creek. I looked around a bit more than usual. There’s another section of beach downstream just past a big pile of logs deposited in the flooding several months back. I found my way around, back up into the woods a little bit. It was a pretty cool little area with some pools under the logs, and soft, deep sand. The dogs loved running around over there.

Once I was done there, we continued around the loop. I stopped for pictures a couple times.

My lower legs felt a little better, and no more glute pain. My hamstring was a little better too.

Average HR 108 bpm.

 

Tuesday, April 7, 2015, 6:53 pm

4.05 mi, 747 ft gain, 1:11:00. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

There was another car parked at gate #1, so I went out to #2. My lower legs felt better again. I still took it easy. I stopped for photos several times, and just looked around a lot.

I turned right onto a faint game trail about 0.3 mi in, well before the clear cut. I knew there were a couple roads up on the hill above, but I wasn’t sure which one I’d hit, or where I’d hit it. I also didn’t know if it was even passable the whole way up. But I could always just go back down.

I got to what turned out to be about 200 ft from the road, and it started to get kind of thick in an area they had more recently logged than most of the side of the hill that I came up. Fortunately, the blackberries haven’t taken over too much. I expect they’ll get worse before too long. I found my way through the all the smaller regrowth to one of the roads. It wasn’t the one that I thought I’d hit and a little farther out that I thought too.

The blackberries haven’t taken over the road yet this year either, though there were a couple low vines. I didn’t see one and caught it across my lower leg. Ouch. I paid more attention after that.

From there, we went back out to the hill road and went up the hill. I was more or less biding time until the sunset, trying to time when I’d get back to a good view point. It was looking to be a pretty good one when I first got to the top of the climb. The Olympic Mountains looked like they were floating in clouds.

We ran out to the little swampy area up a couple more little climbs. I tried climbing up on the big slash pile to get a view, but it wasn’t as good of a spot as back by the first climb. So we headed back.

I was just a minute or two too late to catch the sun actually going over the horizon, but the colors were pretty amazing, and the Olympics were still floating on clouds. I spent a few minutes taking it in before heading for the car.

Average HR 117 bpm.

 

Wednesday, April 8, 2015, 6:34 pm

6.8 mi, 902 ft gain, 1:46:45. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

I felt pretty decent again. On my way up the first little hill, I saw some animal tracks going up the steep hillside. I decided to follow them. It was really steep for about the first 50 ft up. I really didn’t want to have to go back down it. I knew there were roads up top that I’d eventually run into, but I wasn’t sure what I’d come across on the way. Fortunately, it wasn’t bad. The blackberries haven’t taken over the clear cut on top yet.

I got some different views than I usually get out in the tree farm, though still similar.  I caught the road on top at the very end at a landing for when they logged the hillside.

Once back onto logging roads, I took it pretty easy and stopped a number of times to look around. I wanted to find more off trail climbing to do, but the regrowth on the top of the hill is too thick between the small trees and blackberry bushes. I found one spot where the blackberries weren’t too bad and was able to get a little higher. There aren’t many spots on the hill much higher than the road that goes across the top between the gated roads.

I got to the other end of the hill well before the sunset. I considered waiting around for the sunset, but didn’t want to stop for that long. So I headed back to the other end. I tried to make it out near the end where I came up and first hit the road, but by the time I got there the sunset wasn’t really worth it. I briefly thought about going back down the hillside through the clear cut to hit the road even closer to the gate. I didn’t want to possibly get stuck going through slash piles and blackberry bushes in the dark if it took longer than I thought.

I took the roads instead, and I kept the pace up a bit. I’m very thankful that the muscles behind my shins felt fine today. They’ve still been sore afterwards the last few days, though. I guess I’m glad that I was sort of forced to tapering early for Capitol Peak 50 mi. I should be more fresh come race day.

Average HR 122 bpm

 

Thursday, April 9, 2015, 5:49 pm

3.16 mi, 28 ft gain, 26:57. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I got new shoes in the mail today. It was kind of tough to find them in my size and not priced way up by resellers. It seems they’ve been discontinued, or soon to be so.

Anyway, I took them out for a short and easy road run today. I really would like to be going longer, but I guess I’ve resigned myself to taking it easy and recovering for race day.

I found myself speeding up a little more than I planned, but I felt pretty good.

Average HR 137 bpm.

 

Friday, April 10, 2015, 5:57 pm

3.16 mi, 28 ft gain, 23:10. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

I stuck with the same thing I did yesterday. I felt pretty good, and went a bit faster. I stayed pretty comfortable for the first 2 mi. I did a few short fartleks over the last 1 mi or so. Running fast felt good. I haven’t felt good running fast in a while. It was nice.

Average HR 150 bpm.

 

Saturday, April 11, 2015, 4:49 pm

3.15 mi, 28 ft gain, 26:37. Around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2 white.

Going hard yesterday was probably a mistake. My right buttocks and hamstring were really tight and sore running today. I did some more research and reading. It seems like it might be piriformis syndrome, or something similar. It’s going to likely take lots of stretching and some strength exercises. Massage and some other therapy might help speed it up. I hope to still be able to run Capitol Peak, so I’ll take it easy until then. But I’m still going to keep running.

My right leg was pretty stiff starting it. It started to loosen up a little after the first 1 mi or so. I definitely felt better by the end, but still sore and tight.

It was raining pretty good when I started, and it was kind of chilly, so I wore gloves and a hat. The rain stopped about 1 mi in as well. I warmed up and took off the hat. I didn’t necessarily like the cold, but it was nice to see more snow in the mountains. The snow level was down to about cloud level too. The summer is set to be a pretty dry one, so any more snow we get in the mountains will definitely help.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Sunday, April 12, 2015, 5:02 pm

4.5 mi, 1009 ft gain, 1:34:55. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1 new road, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

I was tired of the roads, so I took the dogs out to the tree farm. I saw machinery tracks going up the road to the left about 0.25 mi from the gate a while back. I decided to check it out today.

I’ve been up there before, but the road ended fairly quickly then. They opened it up much farther in the past couple weeks. Unfortunately, I think that probably means they’re going to do some logging out there soon. I hope it’s not for a while. There are some cool areas out there on that side of the hill. We went off trail, through the woods a couple times. The first, I thought I saw a clearing or another road through the woods. It turned out to be a creek and small beaver pond.

Not much farther up the road, I thought I saw more water, probably downstream from the little pond. It turned out to be a larger beaver “pond”, though it’s not much of a fond. I guess it’s just a wetland with some deeper areas of open water. There’s a good sized beaver lodge about 20 yds from the edge. I didn’t see or hear any animals besides my dogs running and splashing around.

After that, we went out to the end of the road. A little before the end, there was a big tree in full blossom. It almost looked like a cherry tree, but I’m not that great at tree identification. I hope it is cherry. I’d love to go pick some when they ripen. I’ll be going back to check on it to find out.

On the way back, I didn’t feel like I was ready to be done. I kept an eye on the woods to the right, uphill side for a decent looking spot to try going up and connecting to the road over the top. I found a game trail to try following. I made it up most of the way. I stopped because it was starting to get really thick. I wasn’t exactly sure where I would have come out on the road up top, but I know that the regrowth on top in that general area is really thick. The trees are close together and the blackberry vines are pretty nasty. Looking at the map afterwards, I was very close. It probably would have been tough going over the last little bit. I’ll still try again sometime.

I forgot my gps an hrm and didn’t realize until I was almost there. I didn’t want to drive back home to get them, so I used the Strava app on my phone.

 

Weekly totals: 29.5 mi, 2987 ft gain

This was my lowest mileage week since July 14-20 of last year, and my first under 30 mi since then as well. Other than the piriformis problem, I feel great and ready for race day. No more hard efforts until then, and some  so I can recover as much as possible.