Tag Archives: practice

Practice, Running, Training Log

December 8-14 Practice Running

Monday, December 8, 2014, 7:17 pm

10.65 mi, 1634 ft gain, 1:44:48. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm Gate #1 to Wallace Lake, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

First run in the rain in a while. I’m glad it wasn’t very cold. I sort of thought I might go about 10 mi or so, or at the very least 6 mi. I made it around the loop to the intersection where I could continue back to the car and decided to keep heading out and go to Wallace Lake again. I felt pretty good going up. I tried to keep my HR below 150 bpm. I peaked up to about 153 a couple times.

Once to the lake, I decided to continue toward Jay lake a little bit. I wanted to try the short section of single track just past the foot bridge with my headlamp. Plenty of light to navigate the roots, rocks and turns, even on the mid setting. I made a brief pitstop off the trail and headed back down.

I felt like I took it a little bit slower on the descent than yesterday. Looking at the data on Strava, I went slower for the first 2/3 of the descent and a little faster for the final 1/3.

My quads were slightly sore, not nearly as bad as they were after the Ravenna 8k race though.

The Fenix HL55 worked great in the rain. I stuck with the mid power setting. I’m still on the same charge of the 18650 battery I’ve been using. I plan to run it until it dies to see how long it lasts. I bought two KeepPower 3400mAh 3.7V rechargeable batteries. From looking around online, they seem to be one of the longest lasting brands for 18650 li-on  batteries. The HL55 is rated at up to 10 hours on mid power. I’m up to about 3.5 hours so far.

Average HR 136 bpm.

 

Tuesday, December 9, 2014, 4:54 pm

11.02 mi, 311 ft gain, 1:38:32. May Creek Rd around town to city limit back up to Gunn rd and home, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

Decided to hit the roads today. Legs were a little tired from the race and back to back hilly 10+ mi days. I felt pretty good today. My left calf toward the lower inside was kind of tight for the last couple miles.

My new headlamp seemed to make a difference with cars giving me a wider berth when they passed. I think they may have been a little unsure about a bright light heading toward them on their side of the road. A couple cars slowed way down.

I ran up Gunn rd, US2 east to May Creek Rd, around to 1st St, west on US2 out to a little past city limits, turned around and headed east on US2, turned onto 17th St and ran around that little neighborhood (never been in there before), then east again on US2 to Gunn rd and home. I ran past the house just a little to break 11 mi.

I kept the pace pretty easy, HR mostly in the low to mid 130s. Average HR 133 bpm.

 

Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 3:35 pm

10.04 mi, 1683 ft gain, 1:39:46. Olney Falls DNR Rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

My ankles were a little sore when I went to bed last night. They were still not quite normal when I started running today, but quickly felt better.

I planned to keep an easy pace today, but with an unplanned pitstop and the dogs misbehaving, I was running short on time. I needed to get out to Monroe by 6 pm to drop some things off, so about 3 mi in, I sped up and pushed harder than I would have for the rest of the run. That meant HR in the 140s on the downhill and flats rather than 120s-130s and up to about 160 bpm on the uphill instead of up to about 150.

Even considering the harder pace, I felt great. My quads were still mildly sore early, but that went away just like the ankle discomfort.

I turned my headlamp on just after an hour. It didn’t work too well in the fog, so I switched to the Fenix e35 flashlight a couple times.
The weather wasn’t bad starting out, a little bit of a drizzle and low 50s. The temperature stayed pretty much the same the whole time, though I did go through a nice warmer microclimate about 4.5 mi out. The rain picked up a couple times, not enough to cause visibility issues. I was completely soaked, though.

That makes four straight 10+ mi days. To hit 2000 mi for the year, I’d have to average about 10.6 mi a day for the rest of December. I’m considering making the push then taking a couple easy weeks to start January.

Average HR 136 bpm.

 

Thursday, December 11, 2014, 5:32 pm

10.91 mi, 272 ft gain, 1:38:35. May Creek Rd around town to Family grocery then out and back, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I left the dogs home to give them a day off. I’m pretty sure they’d just keep going and going until they couldn’t, and I don’t want to be carrying one or both of them miles back to the car.

I headed east up Gunn Rd to minimize running along the shoulder of US2. Running was pretty easy. There weren’t very many cars.
The weather was pretty good.

I had to make a pitstop, so I went into the grocery store to use the restroom. From there, I headed back the way I came out to the road where I’ve turned around several times when running out 20 minutes and back with the dogs.

I definitely feel it a little more in my lower legs when I run 10+ mi on the roads and sidewalks than on trails or logging roads. It wasn’t bad though.

Average HR 130 bpm.

 

Friday, December 12, 2014, 4:44 pm

10.30 mi, 1349 ft gain, 1:42:01. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1 loop and over the hill, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I decided to go around the loop to warm up before heading over the hill. It worked out pretty well.

On the way out on top of the hill, I caught a glimpse of something glowing in the beam of my headlamp. I got closer, and saw that it was a small owl. The owl hung out long enough for me to get my phone out of the ziploc bag and snap a picture. Without using the flash, my headlamp was plenty of light for a photo. The owl was still sitting in the branch when I left it, but it was gone when I returned.

My Fenix HL55 finally got low on batteries. It went into power save mode, cutting back to low power after about 8h 25m use in mid. I also used burst a handful of times in that time and eco a couple minutes before and after runs outside of that time. I had extra batteries with me, but I wanted to continue the test. It was another 17 min or so back to the car on low power. It was plenty of light to see my footing. It might be a little dim for going fast on technical trails though.

There was supposed to be a big storm. There was just a sprinkle here and there most of the run. It started pouring with about 1 mi to go. Thankfully, it only lasted a couple minutes, but I kept the pace up in case it was just the beginning of the storm.

Average HR 124 bpm for the first 15 min or so. Mio battery died.

 

Saturday, December 13, 2014, 3:58 pm

13.27 mi, 2153 ft gain, 2:21:39. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1 over the hill and out toward the lake, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I went with a little easier effort than I have been. I could have kept up the same effort I’ve been running, but I didn’t feel like it.

There wasn’t anything particularly memorable tonight. Once I warmed up, I felt great. I considered going longer, but since I’ve been doing over 10 mi a day, I decided to stick with the plan.

With this run, I went from needing a little over 10.6 mi/day to exactly 10.5 mi/day to hit 2000 mi by year end. I’m holding up better than I thought I would. I guess it shouldn’t be that surprising, considering I leveled off after a pretty good build up earlier in the year, and dropped back a little for the last month or two. This week and the race next weekend should be interesting. If I make it to the end of the month, it’ll be just in time for a two week taper for a possible 50k as a training run for potentially doing my first 100 miler in the Spring.

Average HR 126 bpm.

 

Sunday, December 14, 2014, 5:22 pm

10.91 mi, 1838 ft gain, 1:55:48. Olney Falls DNR rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I was going to run at the same tree farm gate as yesterday, but there was a minivan parked there, and I didn’t want to run into someone else with my dogs off leash, nor did I really want to run with them on leash.

I felt better starting today than I did yesterday. I still kept the pace easier than earlier in the week.

Even picking this route because there weren’t any vehicles parked at the gate, I ran into a hiker about 2.25 mi out. She was using her phone as a flashlight and asked how far it was to the entrance. A few minutes later, I thought that she might have taken a wrong turn and wished I had asked about it. I figured that if she was waiting at the gate when I made it back I’d give her a ride to where she parked. She wasn’t there though.

Not long after passing the hiker, I saw a glow in my headlamp’s beam off the road in the brush. The dogs were up ahead and missed it. I stopped and looked closer and it was a pretty large blacktail buck. It was hard to see how many points in the dark, but they stuck up well above and outside his ears.

It was a little colder tonight than the last couple nights and a little windy, not bad though. There are a few spots along the DNR road with very noticeable microclimates, a couple cooler and a couple warmer. I like the warmer ones. I made a pitstop at my turnaround point with a great view of the lights in the valley.

I took it easier on the downhill, for the most part, because Vida has been lagging behind when I bomb downhill. She always catches back up. I still let loose on a couple steeper sections.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 77.1 mi, 9241 ft gain

My highest mileage week, and I feel a lot better than some lower mileage weeks.

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

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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 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.