Tag Archives: training

Running, Trail run, Training Log

March 30-April 5 Practice Running

Monday, March 30, 2015, 5:33 pm

6.5 mi,  ft gain, 1:27:30. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

For the most part, my leg muscles felt good today. My ankles have been a little creeky for a couple days after long runs recently, but they warm up fairly quickly. The muscles just behind my shins on the inside of my lower legs have been sore after hard and long runs too.

Again, starting out today, I wasn’t nearly as stiff as I had been a few weeks back. Of course I was a little sore and slow, but not bad. I took it easy and stopped to check things out quite a few times. I saw a bright green and spotted frog on a stick over some water in a ditch, then a brown spotted frog in another ditch up a ways.

We went out to the seasonal ponds briefly for a look around and a splash for the dogs. Then we went out to Olney Creek for some more doggy play time. They enjoyed it a lot.

Lately I’ve noticed that if I’m feeling particularly sore or stiff, I feel better after I stop for a little while. Feeling better is nice, but having to stop to do so sucks. I need to figure out how to relax better.

From there, we went out to the hills. We took the left through a clearcut just before the road forks, then out that way for a while before turning back.

I ended up going a little farther than I had originally planned. I was feeling pretty good. Unfortunately, that didn’t last on the way back. My lower legs got pretty sore. I tend to push myself a bit when I’m coming up to a mileage milestone or end of a period of time, like the end of March and nearing 250 mi for the month.

I’ve been practicing trying to relax more while running, which helped with my lower legs a little bit. I did pretty well keeping the pace easy and my HR low. The stopping helped quite a bit with the latter.

Average HR 112 bpm.

 

Tuesday, March 31, 2015, 4:49 pm

11.01 mi, 823 ft gain, 1:48:20. Through Town to WFSP RR Grade, Solo. New Balance MR 10v2.

Feeling a little better today than at the end of yesterday’s run. Still a bit sore just behind the insides of my shins. I worked on conscious relaxation a lot during today’s run.

I started with the thought of sticking to the roads, going about 6 mi or so. But once I got around toward WFSP, I wanted to get a little bit of trail action. I still kept it easy and stuck to the RR Grade. I did very well keeping my HR low again today.

I only saw a few people on the trail. One was an older gentleman running down the trail. He didn’t appear to be dressed in running clothes though, so I think he was maybe just in a hurry to get back.

I went up to the restroom at the Greg Ball Trail junction, made a quick pitstop and then headed back. Going downhill was harder to keep my lower legs relaxed. Just like yesterday, once I got going, today was about hitting 250 mi for March. It doesn’t actually matter, and it’s sort of arbitrary. I’ll end up taking it easy to start April, which will more or less even out the extra effort ending March.

Anyway, I shot a short video to maybe post on YouTube after I turned around. Once I made it back to the TH, I stretched out for a moment, then started for home. The road wasn’t too bad, even though I  was tired and sore. I thought about speeding up to get home more quickly, but managed to keep it mellow. I opened up my stride for the last 200 yds or so to stretch out a bit.

I felt pretty awesome going into the Bridle Trails 50k back in January, and that was only a week and a half after my December push. So maybe more consistency would be helpful instead of going long and hard then short. I don’t know, and it’s probably too close to Capitol Peak 50 Mile for that kind of change to make much difference. Currently, the plan is to recover during the week, go long one more time this weekend, then taper/recover for the 50 miler. Whatever I do, I decided today that I’m just going for the finish and not racing. It might be tough to hold back come race day. I tend to get wrapped up in the race atmosphere.

Average HR 122 bpm.

 

Wednesday, April 1, 2015, 5:24 pm

3.12 mi, 35 ft gain, 25:02. Along the RR tracks, with Sigurd. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Legs were kind of tired, but not sore today. I think I may just need a longer stretch of easy days for a while. I’d like to get one more long run in before Capitol Peak, but I don’t know.

I left Vida home since she’s still limping a little bit. Sigurd was really excited to go. I probably ran a little faster with him than I would have with both of them, but I kept it pretty easy at first.

It was nice and sunny when we started. The plan was to go 4-6 mi. But about 1.3 mi in the sky opened and it started pouring cold rain and hail. Fortunately, the hail didn’t last long, but the rain was pretty cold. I wanted to get at least 3 mi, so I sped up and went to just over 1.5 mi then turned around.

I kept the pace up the rest of the way home. The rain stopped about 0.6 mi from home, but I was absolutely soaked and wanted to get home, so I kept the pace going. Going faster kept me warmer, and my legs handled it ok. They were definitely tired though.

Average HR 135 bpm.

 

Thursday, April 2, 2015, 5:48 pm

5.62 mi, 50 ft gain, 52:03. Along the RR tracks and service road, with Sigurd. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I left Vida home again, still limping a little.

My right hamstring was kind of tight starting out. I was kind of tired again today. I tried to keep the pace easy like I started with yesterday, but Sigurd got me going a little faster a couple times. I managed to hold back pretty well, though.

I  ran along the RR service road on the highway side, then through the park between the highway and RR tracks until a little over 1 mi. Then we hopped over the tracks and ran on the service road on the river side.

We ran out passed the gate for the service road out to Startup, then out to a little over 2.5 mi and turned around. On the way back, I heard a train whistle off in the distance from the west. It was getting closer. Initially, I sped up to try to get back to the tracks and possibly over them in case the train was going to stop in town. It was an Amtrak passenger train, though, and it was really moving. It went by well before I even got back to the gate. So we slowed back down.

Somewhere between 3.5-4 mi or so, my legs were getting pretty tight. I was having trouble staying relaxed, so I stopped briefly for a couple times and let Sigurd pee. The stopping seemed to help my legs a bit.

I sped up a little bit for the last couple hundred yards to stretch out the legs. They were about as tired as when I started, but I still felt better overall by the end.

Average HR 123 bpm.

 

Friday, April 3, 2015, 5:36 pm

6.34 mi, 252 ft gain, 48:20. To WFSP & Back, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

All these little aches are getting annoying. Otherwise, I felt pretty good. I kept the pace up, but I felt like my range of motion has diminished a little bit. I guess I need to work on flexibility more.

I warmed up fairly quickly, then sped up. At first, I tried to keep my HR below MAF threshold. Once I hit the hill on the other side of town on the way up to Wallace Falls State Park, I stopped worrying about it as much. I ran more by my breath rate.

Once to the park, I got a quick drink from the water fountain, which they just recently turned back on. Then I headed back for home. I found myself speeding up several times and pulled back a little. I sped up a little more over the last mile or so, and even more over the last few hundred yards.

I definitely need to work on flexibility, and should probably work on my form as well. I don’t think my back kick is going high enough. I finally washed some of my other running clothes and wore a pair of shorts from Road Runner Sports. They were some of my favorite last year, but today I had some chafing issues. It wasn’t bad considering I wasn’t running for very long, but going much longer than I did today could be a problem.

Average HR 145 bpm.

 

Saturday, April 4, 2015, 6:31 pm

8.02 mi, 1419 ft gain, 1:28:57. Olney Falls DNR rd, solo. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

I had wanted to go long again this weekend for the last time before Capitol Peak 50 mi, but the muscle aches behind the inside of my shins hasn’t quite recovered enough. I’m hoping it’s at least partially a problem of worn out shoes. Two of my Superior 1.5s have over 600 and almost 500 mi on them and my MR10v2s have just under 500 mi on them as well. Fortunately, I was able to find some MR10v2s online for a decent price, I only have around 150 mi on my current pair of Superior 1.5s and I have another pair still in the box. I went with the Lone Peak 1.5 today in hopes that the extra cushion might make a difference. I’m not sure if it did. It might have if I hadn’t hammered the downhills so hard.

I still wanted to get a little climbing in, but still keep it relatively easy. I stopped several times for photos and to look around a bit.

I wasn’t sure how far I was going to go when I started. I got to about 3 mi and decided to keep going, same thing at 3.5 mi. A little after that, I took a right down into a clearcut to check that area out in hopes that I could find a good spot for a view of the sunset. I found a couple decent spots. I also found some tarps and stuff strung up from an old camp. Due to weathering, I think it’s been there for at least a few months.

I took a couple sunset photos and headed back. I ended up hitting some of the downhills pretty hard. I think I may have been over-striding a little bit. My knees were a little sore Sunday morning.

I didn’t have a light with me. I may have gone longer if I had. I made it back to the car with plenty of light to spare, though.

Average HR 132 bpm.

 

Sunday, April 5, 2015, 6:42 pm

11.12 mi, 1885 ft gain, 2:07:29. Olney Falls DNR Rd, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

My lower legs felt a little better today. I decided to go back to the same spot again. I brought my headlamp and a handheld water bottle this time.

I stopped for photos and to look at stuff a number of times again. I planned at least 6 mi, but possibly more. Once I got going, I mostly felt pretty good, so I kept going. I kind of wanted to go farther, but decided not to.

I saw several deer on my way up. One up high on a hill over the road around 3.5 mi. There were a couple more a little less than a mile later. About 0.25 mi passed the first trail from WFSP I saw a couple hikers.

A little over a half mile later, I saw 2 deer in the road. They let me come up to about 20 yards. I had my camera out to try to get some photos. I took a few, then tried to get a little closer. We started playing red light, green light. They’d start running up the road, and I’d run after them. One ran farther up the road than the other. The closest one would stop, angle off the side of the road like it was about to take off into the woods, but it didn’t. I stopped and we stared at each other for a little while. I snapped a few more photos. Then we did it again, running up the road and stopping. I think we did it about 4 times. It was really cool.

I was trying to get up to another view point for the sunset when I stopped to play with the deer. Once they finally took off into the woods, I sped up a little to try to get to a spot with an unobstructed view. I ended up going a little past 5.5 mi before I turned around. I got a couple photos.

Not too far back down the road, I went off trail on the uphill side for a short pit-stop. There were game trails all over the side of the hill there.

I took it a bit easier on the way down than yesterday. I didn’t pull out my light until about 3 mi to go. I could still see well enough, but I didn’t want to chance it.

At about 2.5 mi to go, I saw something shining on the road in the light of my headlamp. I got a little closer and turned it on burst mode. It was a tiny owl standing on the road. I tried to get a photo, but I couldn’t get close enough, and it blended in just enough with the road that the light wasn’t good enough for a decent photo. It flew down the road a ways then landed. It was almost like with the deer again. I tried to get closer. It let me get about 10 yards away then flew down the road again. The next time it flew off into the trees down the hill.

I love wildlife encounters like I had today. It’s one of the reasons I love trail running.

Average HR 123 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 51.7 mi, 4993 ft gain

Practice, Running, Training Log

November 17-23 Practice Running

Monday, November 17, 2014, 12:15 pm

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Tuesday, November 18, 2014, 3:39 pm

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

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

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

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

 

Wednesday, November 19, 2014,  pm

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

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

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

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

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

 

Thursday, November 20, 2014, 3:16 pm

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

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

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

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

 

Friday, November 21, 2014,  pm

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

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

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

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

 

Saturday, November 22, 2014, 8:05 am

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

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

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

 

Saturday, November 22, 2014, 8:32 am

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1122141626

 

Sunday, November 23, 2014, 3:05 pm

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

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

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

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

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

 

Weekly totals: 43.6 mi, 3312 ft gain.

Practice, Running, Training Log

November 10-16 Practice Running

Monday, November 10, 2014, 6:35 pm

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

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

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

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

 

Tuesday, November 11, 2014, 3:23 pm

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

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

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

 

Wednesday, November 12, 2014, 4:06 pm

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

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

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

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

 

Thursday, November 13, 2014, 4:49 pm

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

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

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

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

 

Friday, November 14, 2014, 6:14 pm

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

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

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

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

 

Saturday, November 15, 2014, 6:58 pm

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

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

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

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

 

Sunday, November 16, 2014, 4:49 pm

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

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

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

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

 

Weekly totals: 45.2 mi, 3267 ft gain.

Uncategorized

I Don’t Need a Race to Run: Missing WR50 for Future Adventures

By the time this publishes, runners will be a couple hours into the White River 50 Mile Endurance Run. I was planning to be one of those runners, but after rolling my ankle three weeks ago and not healing quickly enough, I decided against it.

I made the decision last Sunday, and it kind of sucked. All year I’ve had several different goals to look forward to. I ran 50k races in April, May and June as training for a 50 miler this year, which I thought would be WR50.

Without the goal on my horizon my mood took a nose dive during my run Sunday evening. I might even go so far as to say a little depressed. I briefly lost my reasons for running. Considering quitting to do something else even crossed my mind. Focusing on races obscured my real love for just running.

Often when I’m in a negative mood I end up pushing the pace or vert. I pushed the pace on Sunday, not too hard, but it was nice to run faster than I usually do. It did the trick too. By the end of the run my mood lifted significantly. I was running just to run.

Sometime in the next couple days I realized that my 50 mile goal for the year was not specific to any race. I chose WR50 mostly out of convenience. It’s close enough to home and the date worked for me. Really, I just want to complete the distance in one shot.

Since cutting back mileage a bit after rolling my ankle, I’ve been looking over maps at trails I’d like to do. There are a number of trails I could link up for 50 miles, places that I’d like to explore anyway. A few might be a little longer too.

That was part of why I decided to skip WR50. I think I’d probably be alright to finish, but I don’t want to jeopardize all the other adventures I want to go on this year. I’d rather take the time to heal now than potentially be out longer from further injury.

In the meantime, I’ll be sticking to non-technical stuff for a little while longer. And I’m not giving up on races. I like the community and they make great goals to keep motivated, as long as I don’t get so single-minded.

I hope everyone has a great run down at White River. Maybe I’ll be there next year.