Tag Archives: practice running

Practice, Running, Trail run, Training Log

February 23 – March 1 Practice Running

Monday, February 23, 2015, 3:49 pm

4.15 mi, 160 ft gain, 50:34. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

It was rough starting out. My legs were sore and a little stiff. My left achilles is a bit sore too. I stopped and walked a little on the little hill at about 0.3 mi in. Walking wasn’t really much slower.

I warmed up by about the time I got to Olney Creek. The creek bed has changed a bit due to the flooding this winter. The log jam is gone, more logs moved in on the close side up on the bank, the sand bank in spots has raised about 3 feet and pushed into the brush a bit too.

I spent a few minutes at the creek letting the dogs run around. Then I headed out towards the connector hill. I turned around before getting to the bottom of the hill.

The weather was nice. The sun was out, and I ran shirtless for a while. It wasn’t that warm, but the sun still felt nice.

I was still sore and slow by the end of the run, but I felt a lot better.

Average HR 118 bpm.

 

Tuesday, February 24, 2015, 5:12 pm

4.54 mi, 38 ft gain, 39:59. In town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

The legs were a bit less sore today. My left achilles is still sore. It got a little worse about half mile in before it started feeling better again.
My pace was significantly better today than yesterday. I ran out about 20 minutes and turned around.

On the way back, some guy hanging out on his front porch cat-called me. Something about my legs. I’d guess that I get about 10 guys yelling things or cat-calling for every one woman.

I had a great run, anyway. Now I’m trying to figure out what race or solo adventure to do next.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Wednesday, February 25, 2015, 5:58 pm

5.3 mi, 380 ft gain, 56:39. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Again, I didn’t keep up with writing this up until days later, so I don’t remember a whole lot about it.

I went out past Olney creek to where the road meets back up with the loop. I wasn’t sure which way to go. I ended up turning around because the logging trucks made such a mucky mess of the road. Instead, I took the road out towards the hill. I went up the hill a little bit and thought about continuing, but I figured I’d keep it shorter to continue recovering from the race.

Average HR 122 bpm.

 

Thursday, February 26, 2015, 4:00 pm

8.16 mi, 1119 ft gain, 1:28:50. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

(Writing this days later as well).

I was going to go to the next gate, but there was a car out there. I felt pretty good. I kept the pace pretty easy, though.

I went over the hill and back. I let gravity take over a couple times on the downhills. I enjoy running downhill so much, it’s hard to believe I used to really hate it.

Average HR 123 bpm.

 

Friday, February 27, 2015, 4:14 pm

8.22 mi, 1264 ft gain, 1:28:50. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

When I pulled up to the gate, I saw a truck coming out, just about to the gate. Before letting the dogs out, I got out and spoke to the guy briefly. I asked if they were going to be logging out there too. He said he was out there to clean up the roads, ditches and such. I got a little more info about where they’re working right now as well.

Feeling pretty good, but still kept an easy pace. I checked out one of the early side roads that’s been grown over for a couple years, and he cleaned up. It didn’t go very far. Then I went out to the little hill before heading over the connector hill.

I still kept it easy over and back, until I got back to the bottom of the steep part of the west side of the hill. Then I turned around and ran hard back up the steep part, about 0.15 mi and 150 ft gain. I setup a strava segment for that climb, but it didn’t calculate it correctly for this effort. It counted the bottom part when I was still going down and the turnaround as well. I guess I didn’t go quite far enough past the start of the segment to “zero out”. I’m pretty sure I did actually set a PR up it, though.

Average HR 130 bpm.

 

Saturday, February 28, 2015, 1:05 pm

11.04 mi, 2122 ft gain, 1:52:48. To Upper Wallace Falls (10) & back, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Feeling good and mostly recovered. Still don’t have all my speed and strength back, but that’s ok. Training a little tired will be helpful experience for longer stuff.

The park was packed and the trails were quite busy. I pushed the pace in places, but I didn’t worry about stopping and slowing down for hikers. I think I yielded more than I usually do too.

According to strava, I had my third best time going up the woody trail to the upper falls. With all the stopping and still a little of the race left in my legs, I was a little surprised.

I took it easier on the way back down. The road back home was good.

I planned a longer run, but I thought I needed to be back home by 3pm for something, so I cut it short. It turned out that I didn’t need to be back until 5pm. Oh well.

Average HR 154 bpm.

 

Sunday, March 1, 2015, 2:01 pm

21.78 mi, 3454 ft gain, 4:05:36. To WFSP, RR grade, Greg Ball, Wallace Lake, Jay Lake, uphill turnoff, DNR rd to Woody Trail & down,solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#1.

The plan was for at least 16 mi, and possibly as much as 24 mi or so. I kept the pace much easier than Saturday. I started easy on the roads to the park. I stopped briefly at the restrooms and headed up.

Just as I was getting started, I saw another runner on her way back to the TH. Both our faces lit up when we saw another runner. We exchanged waves and greetings as we passed.

I went up the RR grade to the Greg Ball trail, trying to stay below 150 bpm. It’s really easy for me to get excited and speed up in races, with hikers around and just going uphill in general.

Once I hit the DNR road at the end of the Greg Ball trail, instead of the more direct road to Wallace Lake, I took the road to the right, going uphill. It’s one of the few alternate routes to Wallace Lake that I hadn’t done yet. I liked it, some nice climbing and adds a little more distance to the trip.

Once to the lake, I kept going out to the beach on the north side and took a couple photos. Then I continued out to Jay lake. I saw some flagging tape continuing out past the food storage site, so I followed it. A very minimal path has been cut out a ways. I stopped when it ran into some blowdowns and couldn’t see any more tape.

I took the DNR rd toward the falls, but took a detour up the road I checked out a while back hoping to find a possible route up Mt. Stickney. Last time I stopped where part of the road was washed out. It was really wet and looked pretty unstable. This time it’s been dry and didn’t look like much had moved since then. I decided to go around it on the uphill side, where it looked like some other people had done the same. Either that or some good sized bear(s) with the size of the impressions in the small talus. I went up the road a ways further, up to about where my gps said was 2600 ft elevation. Looking at maps and satellite images, it looks very promising. I’m definitely going back sometime. I wanted to keep going but didn’t really want to run in the dark, even though I had my headlamp with me.

A little further down the DNR road towards the falls, I saw a critter scamper down the road ahead of me then head uphill. I stayed quiet until I got within sight. It was a bobcat, my first time seeing one in years of enjoying the outdoors. It stood there watching as I pulled out my phone and took a couple pictures. I stood and watched for a little longer. Just before I kept going, I waved my arms and made some noise to scare it off. Lots of people hike in the park, including with kids and small dogs. It’s better if it stays scared of people. It was an awesome experience.

I hit Upper Wallace Falls for the 11th time this year.

Even though the parking lot was packed and cars were parked down the road about 0.5 mi when I started, there weren’t many people left on the Woody trail on my way down.

Running the road home was kind of rough. Tired leg training was in full effect. I still finished the last 0.1 mi or so strong.

This will probably be my last long run in this pair of shoes. The Altra Superior is just about the perfect balance of ground feel and protection for me. But after over 600 mi on this pair, they’ve lost a lot of that protection. My feet were not happy for about the last 7 mi. I may still use them for short runs.

Average HR 134 bpm. This isn’t necessarily accurate. I forgot to charge my HR monitor. The battery died, and it missed the last 1.5 hours.

 

Weekly totals: 63.3 mi, 8536 ft gain.

February totals: 187.2 mi, 21420 ft gain.

Running, Training Log

February 16-22 Practice Running

Monday, February 16, 2015, 4:40 pm

4.79 mi, 84 ft gain, 39:13. In town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

Legs still a little sore/stiff starting out, but warmed up by about 1.5 mi. I really wanted to go longer, and still ended up going a little longer than I planned. I went out for 20 min, then turned around and headed back.

HR was a little high again. I ate shortly before running again too. Maybe it’s good practice for longer races, running with a full stomach.

Average HR 143 bpm.

 

Tuesday, February 17, 2015, 5:08 pm

3.14 mi, 28 ft gain, 26:01. In town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

The weather was great again today. It was cooling off a bit with the sun heading down, but still not bad. The forecast is for about the same on race day, Sunday.

My upper legs were just a little sore starting out again, but felt better pretty quickly. The pace was faster than I expected, and felt pretty easy. It was only 2 sec slower than yesterday, but much lower HR.

I’m already over these short runs, but I want to be ready on Sunday. Fortunately, the nice weather has given me a little motivation to also get outside for some yard work. I have a lot of yard work to get done.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Wednesday, February 18, 2015, 4:24 pm

4.09 mi, 199 ft gain, 39:44. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

I modified my Lone Peaks like I’ve done to my Superiors. This was my first test run with the modification. It went alright.

Another easy taper run. A little sore starting out again, and quickly warming up again. I went up the little hill, followed a couple game trails and went out to Olney Creek.

I don’t particularly feel like my taper has been going that well, but my “easy” pace has sped back up to at least what I think it should be at my level of fitness. My HR was pretty good today as well. It helps to have some time to digest between eating and running.

I picked up the pace for the last 200m or so again. I ended up around 6:30/mi pace for that part.

Average HR 134 bpm.

 

Thursday, February 19, 2015, 5:52 pm

3.15 mi, 28 ft gain, 22:39. In town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

Just a quick spin around town today. It was raining a bit, but not bad. I went with a comfortably fast pace, which hovered around my current marathon goal pace and a little faster at times.

My right hamstring was still a little sore when I started, less so than the last few days. I finally feel like the taper is working. I could tell from my pace and effort the last few days that it was working, but I didn’t physically feel much better until today. I might still have a little more to go to physically feel ready. But I didn’t feel that great early in the last 5 mi race on the 7th and ended up doing great.

Average HR 144 bpm.

 

Friday, February 20, 2015, 4:16 pm

3.16 mi, 28 ft gain, 27:37. In town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Feeling pretty good. Bored with the taper.

Average HR 131 bpm.

 

Saturday, February 21, 2015, 5:04 pm

3.14 mi, 28 ft gain, 28:53. In town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

More of the same.

Average HR 121 bpm.

 

Sunday, February 22, 2015, 8:02 am

31.33 mi, 5290 ft gain, 5:16:31. Lord Hill 50k. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#2.

Not quite the race I wanted, but happy with my performance anyway. I’ll post a separate race report in the next couple days.

Average HR 149 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 52.8 mi, 5573 ft gain.

Running, Trail run, Training Log

February 9-15 Practice Running

Monday, February 9, 2015, 6:18 pm

4.13 mi, 153 ft gain, 37:27. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#2.

I got a late start to my run today. The legs are still a bit sore, but not so stiff. They warmed up within the first mile.

The logging roads were muddy again. It looks like they’re building some new roads for more logging in the area, because they have equipment out in one of the rock pits and a whole lot of crushed rock piled up along the road. Once they’re done, it should be more places to run. Unfortunately, it will also likely be clearcut along those new roads.

Anyway, I felt pretty good during the run and was pretty much back to my usual pace for relatively easy days. I still kept it short and without a lot of vert to recover more from the race and yesterday’s run up Wallace Falls.

I’m still thinking about one more long run before the Lord Hill 50k on Feb 22. If I do it, it will probably be Wednesday or Thursday, so I have time to fully recover before the race. I had wanted to get out and run at least one lap on the course, but I probably won’t.

Average HR 126 bpm.

 

Tuesday, February 10, 2015, 5:04 pm

6.25 mi, 685 ft gain, 1:12:59. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

My legs are mostly better today, just a little residual soreness. I warmed up within a mile.

I forgot my gloves today. I usually wear gloves when the temperature is below the mid 50s. My hands get cold and sometimes swell a little otherwise. It wasn’t too bad today, though.

The logging roads were muddy again. They’re also moving heavy equipment around some more. I got a good view of what they cut down on the mountain side. They pretty much doubled the size of the clearcut area. There was a section of trees on the road up the mountain toward Wallace Lake, but they cut that down.

It also looks like they’re working on the road at the gate before this one that’s been closed and overgrown since I’ve lived in the area, so I might have to start calling this one gate #2. Maybe that’s where the crushed rock they’ve been piling up is going.

I stopped quite a bit on today’s run. I took a couple photos, tried taking some video and did a little exploring and wandering. My moving time actually about 57 min.

I stayed straight on the road to avoid the muddy roads and then headed for the hill. I only went up and partway over today. I’m thinking about either going long or doing a good amount of climbing tomorrow, so I took it pretty easy today.

Just before turning off toward the hill, I saw an animal farther up the road. I couldn’t tell what it was. It was smaller than my dogs, but not a lot smaller. It wasn’t that light out, so I couldn’t really tell color. Based on shape and size, I’d guess either a coyote or bobcat. It was quite a ways off, though. I did hear some coyotes yipping a few minutes later.

Going faster on the descents is becoming more and more comfortable. I also did a short stretch at around my marathon goal pace, and it wasn’t that hard. It will likely be quite a while until I actually run a road marathon, though.

Average HR 127 bpm.

 

Wednesday, February 11, 2015, 3:00 pm

12.32 mi, 4942 ft gain, 2:44:35. Upper Falls, Greg Ball, Wallace lake, Greg Ball, Upper Falls, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#2.

Last tough run before Lord Hill 50k. I didn’t quite go as far as I had wanted, but I got a little more vert than planned, so maybe it evens out.

I felt pretty good at the beginning. I went up the woody trail to the upper falls to start. I didn’t push very hard, but my HR was pushing up to the 160s.

I stopped briefly for a photo at the Middle falls. Once to the Upper falls, I took a short break. I had some water and food. I brought raisins and dates again.

I went up to the DNR road above the falls to get some more vert and maybe see how the bridge construction was going. There were guys working on it.

I went back down the way I came, turning off at the sign for the restrooms where the RR grade and Greg Ball trail meet. Then I went up the Greg Ball trail. I even bettered my Strava segment CR for the Greg Ball trail a little.

At Wallace Lake, I had some more water and more food while I pondered which way to go next. It had been about 90 minutes, and I had about 80 minutes of light left. I decided just to backtrack the whole thing and headed back out.

I made good time down the Greg Ball trail. It’s a lot of fun to run down too. Then I went back down the connector trail and head back towards the falls on the Woody trail. I ended up passing a couple who I saw on my initial trip up as they were heading down. The guy asked something about going up again, and I tried answering, but I don’t think I made that much sense.

I made it back up to the Upper falls without too much trouble, stopped briefly, then went up to the DNR rd again. That last climb from the Upper falls to the DNR rd was rough. At the top, I saw the bridge work crew driving their box van down the road. I had a little water and food, then headed back down again.

I took it easy on the way down. With the trees and clouds, it started to get dark. I purposely left my headlamp at home, but I had my handheld flashlight. I didn’t want to use it, though.

Once I made it back to the short RR grade between the woody trail TH and the parking lot, I opened it up a bit. I even hit 6:25/mi pace and felt pretty good. I still had a few minutes of useable light when I finished.

This was trips 8 and 9 to the Upper Falls for the year. At this rate I’ll hit my goal of 50 about the 2nd or 3rd week of October.

Average HR 148 bpm.

 

Thursday, February 12, 2015, 5:30 pm

3.25 mi, 132 ft gain, 33:36. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Well, I planned to keep it short and easy today, but not that short. I forgot to bring a light with me. Since I started just after sunset, I didn’t have that much time before it got too dark to see. I guess that’s one way to stick to my taper for the 50k.

I felt much better today than I expected with all the climbing I did yesterday. I’ve done more climbing before, so I guess it’s not as surprising as I thought.

I was a little bit sore, but I could move just fine. My legs warmed up about the halfway point. It was a pretty good run, even if it was so short.

Average HR 122 bpm.

 

Friday, February 13, 2015, 5:04 pm

3.18 mi, 28 ft gain, 28:12. In town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Just a quick spin around town. Legs were fine.

Average HR 134 bpm.

 

Saturday, February 14, 2015, 2:17 pm
11.13 mi, 875 ft gain, 1:39:56. Through town to RR grade, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

The weather was great. I headed for Wallace Falls State Park. I warmed up pretty quickly. I was moving pretty well.

I ran into a friend when I hit the parking lot. She was waiting for some friends to go hiking. I stopped for a very brief chat.

I stuck to the Rail Road Grade. I wanted some time in the woods, but didn’t want to do too much only a week out from the Lord Hill 50k.
I kept a decent pace up the trail. Once to the end, where the Greg Ball trail starts, I kept going a little to see if the old grade was still passable beyond there. It quickly stopped on the other side of a creek 20 yards out or so.

I was moving great on the way back down the trail. They laid some fresh crushed rock in a couple spots. It also looked like they graded a couple spots as well, then used the scraped up earth to fill in some mucky spots. However, the soil they used was sticky, mucky and had quite a bit of clay in it, so it seems like it just made it worse in those spots.

On the road back home, I saw another person I knew out pruning their apple trees, so I stopped and talked for a few minutes.
Once I started back up, my legs were a little stiff but loosened up quickly. My pace didn’t really suffer, and I actually slowed myself down a little.

I made pretty good time. In all, I ended up stopping for about 11 minutes between talking with people, signing the register and checking out past the end of the trail. The 50k next week is three laps around a 10 mi loop with 1700 ft gain. I think it’s fairly comparable to today’s run when you adjust distance and elevation gain. If I can maintain the same kind of pace I did, and minimize my stopping time, I could potentially finish significantly under my goal time.

Average HR 145 bpm. My HR was elevated compared normal for my breathing and pace. I think it was due in part to eating shortly before running. It calmed down a bit later in the run.

 

Sunday, February 15, 2015, 4:22 pm

4.45 mi, 600 ft gain, 47:28. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#2.

I was a little sore from yesterday, but I warmed up quickly. My core was sore, as well, from using an axe to take down a tree yesterday and several more today.

I took it easy today. I’m supposed to be tapering. I considered going longer, but held myself back. I have a tendency to try to go beyond goals, plans and such, rather than just trying to reach them. It’s great in many cases, but it can also lead to burnout. As I mentioned before, I’m not great at moderation.

In an effort to work on moderation, I didn’t push the pace, I hiked most of the steepest part of the hill, which I usually run, and I took a couple minutes break at my turnaround point.

On the way back down the hill, though, I let gravity do its thing and got the legs turning over quickly. I used to dislike running downhill, mostly because I couldn’t do it very well. I think part of it was that I wasn’t fast enough to keep up with the speed that I would go if I went with gravity.

I expect more runs like this over the next week to get ready for the race.

Average HR 127 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 44.7 mi, 7387 ft gain

Practice, Races, Running, Trail run, Training Log

February 2-8 Practice Running

Monday, February 2, 2015, 5:11 pm

3.22 mi, 28 ft gain, 29:03. In town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

My legs are mostly recovered from the weekend, except my left achilles is still really tight and a little sore. Just like yesterday, it got worse around 0.4-0.5 mi before it got better.

I’m not sure why, but I’ve felt a bit down today. The run definitely helped.

I still ended up not going as far as I had planned. It did start raining with a little bit of hail, but I actually kind of enjoyed that.

I’ll probably stick with this type of run for a few days. Maybe I’ll go into the 5 mi race this weekend on fresh legs. I’d like to get one more specific training run in for the Lord Hill 50k, probably this weekend or early next week.

Average HR 121 bpm.

 

Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 5:16 pm

4.01 mi, 144 ft gain, 42:48. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#2.

My left leg is even more sore today, but it’s actually my lower calf and not my achilles. I don’t know if that’s any better or not. It was stiff for most of today’s run. It loosened up for a few minutes around 2.5 mi, but tightened back up less than a mile later.

I had hoped to go longer today, but kept it short again. Everything else is fine, though.

I broke out a new pair of Superior 1.5s from my stockpile. I modified them last night. My other red pair have lost a lot of their cushioning ability, which isn’t unexpected with almost 600 mi on them. The treads still have plenty of life, so I’ll probably still keep them in rotation for less rocky terrain. I took some photos of my modification process and will post something about that soon.

Average HR 121 bpm.

 

Wednesday, February 4, 2015, 5:33 pm

4.02 mi, 143 ft gain, 43:30. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#2.

Yesterday was pretty rough. After the run, my calf was still bugging me. I broke out the foam roller, did some stretching and some manual massage. I also wore warm socks, used some heat and kept my lower legs under extra covers when I slept last night, all to promote blood flow to the area. Our bodies are capable of amazing things, like healing themselves. The trick is to help the processes.

It was still a little bit sore and tight when I woke up today, but much better. When I started my run this evening, it was fine, loose and not sore at all. My right hamstring is still a little tight, so I’ll do some work on that tonight.

Even though I felt better, I still kept today short and easy. I’d like to go into the 5 mi race this weekend with fresh legs. It’d be great to win one more, but I think I’m already guaranteed top 3 for the series. I know there are lots of people who could have beat me, even locally. But they weren’t racing. And it’s still a big confidence booster.

There wasn’t really anything remarkable about today’s run. It was still great, though. A little rain, no pain, and I felt like I just got started at the end.

Average HR 127 bpm.

 

Thursday, February 5, 2015, 4:12 pm

4.22 mi, 38 ft gain, 38:13. Green belt in town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

The legs were a little heavy today. But it was still pretty nice to get out. Originally I was considering only about 3 mi, but felt decent so I pushed it out to 4 mi.

I stuck to the grass in the park mostly, with a little bit on the gravel access road on the highway side of the tracks.

I picked up the pace toward the end to try to get my legs going ahead of the race on Saturday. It wasn’t great.

Average HR 134 bpm.

 

Friday, February 6, 2015, 3:52 pm

6.33 mi, 265 ft gain, 51:29. To WFSP TH and back, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

My legs felt a lot better today. I didn’t know how far I was going to go until a little over a mile into the run, and I decided to head out to the Wallace Falls parking lot.

It was much easier running today, and I ended up going a little faster than most of my runs.

My HR was a little elevated, though. I either caught another head cold, or the last one has come back. It’s just a mild pressure on the left side of my head around my eye back to my ear, and it mostly goes away later in the day.

Even so, I’m pretty happy with today’s run. I opened it up down the hill from WFSP, reaching close to 4min/mi. I sped up for the last little bit to home as well, not quite as fast, but it wasn’t downhill either.

Bring on the race.

Average HR 143 bpm.

Saturday, February 7, 2015, 9:04 am

1.17 mi, ft gain, 19:18. Frost Eagle Warmup, solo. New Balance MT1010v2.

I ended up parking nearly 0.4 mi away from the parking lot. Lots of people and a small parking lot. I didn’t really have much time for that great of a warmup, but it was better than nothing. I forgot to stop my watch, it was much less time than 19 minutes.

Average HR 134 bpm.

 

Saturday, February 7, 2015, 9:45 am

5 mi, ft gain, 35:57.8. Frost Eagle 5 mi Race, solo. New Balance MT1010v2.

I took the lead from the beginning. Another guy I know passed me for a brief period just so he could say he had the lead. There was a pretty good pack of guys right behind me. I dropped the hammer on the first downhill, and I don’t think many people followed.

The half marathon was started 7 minutes prior to the 5 mi race. The two races shared a good portion of the same course, with the half marathon turning off about 1.5 mi in. I ended up catching and passing quite a few half marathoners. Most of them were great about moving to the side, but a couple weren’t paying attention. When the rest of the people in the group they were in moved over, they decided to take the opportunity to pass right in front of me. It didn’t slow me down much though.

It was pretty muddy and really wet out there, with lots of standing water and some flowing water. I just plowed right through the mud and water. I may have accidentally splashed a few half marathoners.

I came up to one more group just as got to where the race courses diverged. From there out I was pretty much alone. I had put some time on 2nd place, one of my 2 competitors for the series win. I had backed off on the pace a little bit. At about 3 mi I looked back and saw that he had regained a some ground, so I attacked again.

I didn’t attack that much on the climbs, but opened up on some of the descents. I also tried to maintain speed through the turns, mud and puddles. I nearly crashed a couple times pushing the pace. About a mile from the finish, there was a pretty good hill that I tried to bomb down. The trail was fairly straight, but my legs were going all over the place from the mud. I just about did the splits trying to stay upright. I slowed down a little bit at the bottom briefly to make sure everything was alright. I was fine, so I pushed on.

After that, at nearly every turn I’d look back to see if I could see anyone gaining on me, but I didn’t see anyone. When I finally hit the gravel pipeline trail near the end, I saw the runner who wanted to say he had the lead. Apparently he took a wrong turn, and his knee was banged up pretty good from a fall. I asked if he was alright. He was, so I pushed on to the finish.

I won the race, and clinched the series win. Second place was about 45 seconds back, who ended up 3rd in the series. He also pretty handily beat me at the race when I lost my shoe by enough that my shoe didn’t make a difference. The half marathon winner ended up 2nd in the series by 3 points, just 5 points behind me.

I decided not to worry about my HR today and switched to view current pace, and I only looked at that a few times, once at the beginning before the first hill. I saw I was going around 5:40/mi pace and backed down a little. I looked a couple other times just out of curiosity.

Even not worrying about my HR during the race, I still wore the monitor to look over the data afterwards. My average HR was 181 bpm. I’m not sure how accurate this is. It looks like the reading dropped suddenly for a little bit early, then spiked over 200. Even if it is off, It’s probably not by much. My HR hovered around 180 bpm most of the time. My most recent bout of head cold has gotten better, but my HR is still a little elevated because of it. Running by feel and not by HR, I think I was also able to push harder than if I had looked. I may have backed off seeing it that high. I’m starting to get the feel for that edge between uncomfortably fast and blow-up fast. But I have lots more to learn.

Saturday, February 7, 2015, 4:29 pm

3.18 mi, 28 ft gain, 30:04. Around town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

I took the dogs out for a little spin around town before dark. It started raining as soon as we started, but it wasn’t cold, fortunately.

Man, my legs were stiff. They loosened up a little by about 1 mi, but took until about 2 mi to feel ok. The same little spot in my right hamstring that’s been a little bothersome for over a week finally got to the point that I decided I’d do something about it.

This evening I sat my hammy on the foam roller, going back and forth for about 10 minutes. That was not pleasant.

Average HR 135 bpm.

 

Sunday, February 8, 2015, 3:36 pm

11.21 mi, 2307 ft gain, 2:07:03. Upper Wallace Falls via woody trail from home, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#2.

My legs were a little stiff today but not quite as much as yesterday afternoon’s run. I loosened up a couple miles in. I was pretty sore as well, and that didn’t really go away. It wasn’t quite so bad later in the run, though.

This wasn’t exactly what I had planned for today, but it worked based on how I felt after yesterday’s race.

The trails were a little bit busy, but not bad. Most people were on their way back to the TH as I went out. The muscle soreness slowed me down a little. I made it to the Upper falls from the TH in about 33 min. I spent a couple minutes up there watching the waterfall, drinking some water and snacking on some raisins and a couple dates.

Since my legs were still sore, I took it extra easy down the steep, slippery steps near the top. I kept it pretty easy going most of the way down. I just wasn’t quite as surefooted with tired legs and didn’t want to push my luck with the wet conditions. It didn’t rain today, but there was quite a lot of rain over the last several days.

Once I hit less than 1 mi to the TH, I was feeling good again and picked up the pace. On the short road grade section at the end, I even hit 6:40/mi pace and felt good.

I passed 3 guys in the last little stretch who I had seen on my way up just below the Lower falls view point. As I went by, one of them said in a seemingly joking tone, “I hate you”. I couldn’t help but laugh a little.

Running the roads back home wasn’t too bad until I turned onto US2. I spent the last 1.5 mi running into a pretty stiff headwind. It only died down briefly a couple times. It was mostly steady, though, and even picked up enough to slow me way down. That’s part of the experience of running outside.

Average HR 143 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 42 mi, 3311 ft gain

Running, Trail run, Training Log

January 26-February 1 Practice Running

Monday, January 26, 2015, 2:51 pm

6.03 mi,  ft gain, 1:09:35. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I felt surprisingly good today. The sunny 60 degree weather was great too. My right hamstring was a little sore starting out. I also started a little slow, but I warmed up after about 2 mi.

After the first mile, I got out into the open and the sunlight. It felt great, so I took off my shirt. The sun felt awesome.

I went over the hill from the west side today. There was too much logging traffic on the road at the other gate. Up on the hill, I could see exactly where they were logging. It’s not that far past where they set up signs.

Once I got to the other side of the hill, in the hills shadow, it got much cooler. It’s always cooler in that area.

I picked up the pace a little bit on the way back. I had to get back home to make it to the post office before it closed.

Average HR 126 bpm.

 

Tuesday, January 27, 2015, 5:08 pm

6.72 mi, 1096 ft gain, 1:12:26. Olney Falls DNR rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I felt a little sluggish starting out today. I stuck with a pretty easy pace for most of the run. I started feeling better about 2 mi in, but still kept it easy.

It was raining the whole time, not all that heavily, but just a constant light rain. I used my Outdoor Research Helium II jacket. It kept me fairly dry for about 40-45 min, but the front of my body was pretty wet by 1 hour. My forearms were quite wet as well. I think that’s from water draining back from my hands as my arms come forward above parallel to the ground. My back was still mostly dry, though. And I was still warm enough.

Vida kept up much better today, though still lagged behind a bit when I sped up on the last descent. I might give the dogs tomorrow off, or do a double with a longer solo run and a short one with them.

Early in the run, I wasn’t really feeling it and almost cut it short to 3-4 mi, but I’m glad I kept going. I kind of wish I went longer, but I think another “easy” day was a good idea. It feels really weird to call 6.7 mi with over 1000 ft gain easy.

Average HR 124 bpm.

 

Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 4:56 pm

2.09 mi, 36 ft gain, 18:29. Warmup for solo 5k, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I took it easy to warm up. My right hamstring was a little tight again, but loosened up. I probably went a little faster than ideal, but it was cold out and I wanted to get warm faster.

Average HR 119 bpm.

 

3.14 mi, 20 ft gain, 18:29. Solo 5k through town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I started too fast, but I wanted to see what I could do. I set new PRs for 1 mi, 2 mi and 5k (1/2 mi and 1k too according to Strava).

My splits were 5:33 for mi 1, 5:50 for mi 2, 6:10 for mi 3 and 6:23/mi pace for the last 0.14 mi. I went hard from the start, wanting to see what kind of pace I could hold. I faded fairly consistently after the first mi. I just hung on to what I had over most of mi 3. I tried to finish hard over the last 0.3 mi or so, but I could feel my legs just about to burn out, so I backed off just a hair.

I’m really close to two of my goals for the year, sub 5:30 1 mi and sub 18:00 5k. My best estimated 1 mi time from Strava was 5:32. My 5k time was 18:12. Based on today, I know I can beat my 1 mi goal. I’m pretty sure I could do a sub 18:00 5k if I paced better. My 2 mi time was 11:22, which I also think I could do faster with better pacing. Even so, my 2 mi time today was nearly 3 minutes faster than I ever did in the Army. My best 2 mi for the APFT was 14:44, a couple weeks before my 21st birthday in 2002 while still in training. I hated running back then.

Average HR 147 bpm. I don’t think this is correct. The data shows my HR around 105 bpm for the first 1.25 mi, then suddenly jumping to the low 170s. It hit a high of 184 bpm near the end.

After I finished, I sat down on a curb by the elementary school to rest a little before heading home.

 

2.75 mi, 43 ft gain, 24:57. Cool down for solo 5k, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I went pretty easy on my way home. I wanted at least 2 mi for a cool down, but heading straight home was going to end up around 1.4 mi, so I kept going up US2 to the next street and then ran back along that one to get home.

Average HR 136 bpm.

 

Thursday, January 29, 2015, 4:46 pm

7.10 mi, 1235 ft gain, 1:09:46. Olney Falls DNR rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I might actually have been more sore today from yesterday’s 5k than I was the day after the first 20 mi of last weekend. But it’s a different kind of muscle soreness. I could still run pretty much like normal today. Soreness from a long run takes more out of me, even if it doesn’t hurt as much.

It took about 2 mi to warm up completely, but I still had some soreness in my legs. It was a good run anyway.

The orange of the sunset lasted from before I started until after I finished. I had some great views. I spent about 5 minutes at the turnaround spot.

Average HR 129 bpm.

 

Friday, January 30, 2015, 3:56 pm

16.01 mi, 2353 ft gain, 2:49:32. Upper Wallace Falls via Woody Trail to Wallace Lake & back via Greg Ball Trail, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I decided to move up my long run by a day. I might do another B2B and go again tomorrow, but I was pretty tired today.

My legs were still a bit sore from Wednesday’s 5k. I guess I really went hard then. I don’t feel like my pace has suffered much from it, but I definitely feel it. I suppose running on tired legs is good practice for my first 100 miler, whichever I finally decide on. I still haven’t made up my mind whether to run Badger Mountain or wait for another one, maybe Lumberjack or Pigtails.

Even though my legs were sore, and I felt like I was running pretty slowly on the roads out to the trails, I was running in the low 8 min/mi range, which is fairly usual. I tried to take it easy up the climbs on the Woody trail, but caught myself going a little harder a couple times. Overall, it wasn’t too fast of a pace.

I was well ahead of sunset when I hit the Valley Overlook, and I didn’t want to wait around that long, so I kept going. I caught glimpses of the sunset through the trees, though. I had a nice view from the DNR rd above the Upper Falls. The horizon glowed orange for over an hour.

The DNR rd out to Wallace Lake was quite a bit drier today. The flooded section closer to the lake has receded, but where there was just one channel of the creek cutting across the road, there are now two. They’re easily jumped across, though.

Once I got to the picnic table by the bridge over the outlet of Wallace Lake, I got my headlamp out. While the sky was still glowing orange, it quickly got dark in the trees.

The road from Wallace Lake to the Greg Ball trail has dried out a lot as well. Though, I almost lost a shoe in the mud where a puddle had been.

Today was my first time running down the Greg Ball trail by headlamp. It was pretty fun. I missed switch backs, going a couple steps off trail, two or three times. When going downhill, I tend to keep my headlamp pointed down right in front of my feet, which means I don’t see the trail farther ahead very well.

My legs were pretty tired for about the last 1.5 mi, but I tried to maintain about the same pace. I did speed up for about .25 mi as I approached the turn for home, because it sounded like the train that was stopped was getting ready to get going, and I didn’t want to get stuck waiting at the RR crossing.

It was a little more tough of a run than either of last weekend’s 20 milers, mostly just because my legs were sore. Other than that, it was great.

Average HR 137 bpm.

 

Saturday, January 31, 2015, 3:48 pm

16.02 mi, 2437 ft gain, 2:56:24. Greg Ball to Wallace lake to upper falls & back via woody trail, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I’m writing this a couple days later, so it’s not the freshest thing in my mind. I was rather sore and tired from the day before, so I kept a pretty easy pace again.

I warmed up after about 2 mi. Since I went up the Woody trail and down the Greg Ball on Friday, I decided to go the other direction. Even going easy, I just about set another Strava CR up the Greg Ball trail. If I hadn’t stopped to pee, I would have made it by a little bit.

The trail was kind of busy, much more so than the day before. That was another reason for switching directions. The road grade and Greg Ball trail are usually a lot less busy than the Woody trail.

I pulled out my headlamp at the picnic table at Wallace Lake again. I didn’t turn it on for a little while though. I took it easy on the way down the Woody trail too. I only passed one group of people still on the trail on my way down, three guys with cameras and flashlights. I’m glad they had lights. I’ve come across several people on the trail without lights after sunset.

Running the roads home was kind of rough. But that’s why I wanted to do back-to-back long runs. I wanted to do some training on tired legs. And that’s what I got. I was surprised at how well my legs held up to the b2b long runs the previous weekend. I guess an all out 5k and a second week in a row with b2b long runs did the trick.

I might take it easy for the most part until Lord Hill 50k on Feb 22. Or at least a few days before another long run this upcoming weekend after the 5 mi race for the final NW Trail Runs Winter Series.

Average HR 132 bpm.

 

Sunday, February 1, 2015, 2:09 pm

6.20 mi, 67 ft gain, 58:25. Green belt and RR access rd, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

My left achilles is stiff again. Sometime I’ll finally figure out what the deal is. Maybe I need to do more stretching. It seems like when I have this issue it tightens up more around 0.5 mi into my run, sometimes making me consider turning around and going home. Then it loosens up just a short time later.

I decided to go through the little park between US2 and the RR tracks for a while, then hopped the tracks to the access road by the river. I went out past the gate on the road that leads out to Startup.

A little ways down the road there’s sort of a marshy area to the right. As I came up to it I saw 7 great blue herons take flight. It was pretty awesome to see. I wish I could have gotten a photo.

I continued out a ways farther before turning around. As I got back to the marsh, I saw more herons. I guess the 7 I saw fly off went back. A couple flew just around some trees, a couple more flew up into a tree on the far end, and several just stayed where they were. I counted a total of 8 this time.

The rest of the run was pretty uneventful.

Average HR 124 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 66.1 mi, 8315 ft gain