Monday, April 23, 2007
Finally, a big mile weekend!
With the recent bout of injuries, I've never been so happy to spend 9 hours running on a weekend :-)
With 33 days to go until the Blackfoot, there is something quite encouraging about racking up the miles; 24 on Saturday and 29 on Sunday and still feel good on Monday. Other than a minor blister or two, I feel pretty darn good today. In fact, if my stomach settles down, I'll probably go for an easy hour or so later this evening just to move my body.
Saturday's run was pretty uneventful. I ran with the marathon clinic I'm leading, we did around 20 miles in 3:15. Prior to that, I ran to the starting point to get a few miles in at a slightly quicker pace.
Sunday had some interesting moments. I went up to Bird's Hill Park to run the trails. I was going to meet my friend Cheryl and run with her for a bit and then continue on for much longer on my own. I got there early enough to get just over a mile onto the trail when my phone rang, she was there. So I doubled back and we set off again. We ended up doing about 15k together; which was probably good for me because I did these earlier miles at a slower pace than I normally do. Once we found another trail head, off I went with the notion that I'd most likely see Cheryl once or twice depending on how we each chose to do the various short loops to make up our miles for the day. So far, the trails were in amazing condition, mostly dry with just some soft muddy spots and the odd horse dung mess.
As it turns out, I missed a turn and had to double back so I met her again just as she was coming to the corner I missed, so we commiserated over the muck we finally discovered a mile or two back and off we went on the right trail. Within a few hundred metres, we came across more water and mud. At first, we did some bushwacking to try and stay dry; but after the first few initial wet foot moments, it was a mutual decision to just go for broke and plunge through the water and mud.
Even though it is near the end of April and the sun has been shining quite nicely for a few weeks, this water was COLD! We even crunched through some ice at one point! After a mile of this, we finally found dry ground! Our shoes were soaked, Cheryl actually wrung out her socks. As we once again got going, I told her that if I came across more slop like that I'd turn around and come back so we could do it together. She ever so sweetly said "I don't want to see you again!"
The rest of that trail loop was pretty much dry which was good as it gave my feet a chance to dry and warm up. Getting back to the parking lot, I changed socks and headed back out onto the trails. The rest of the run was great, even managed to knock of the last few miles at a pretty fast pace without feeling like I was going to puke.
My fuel for these runs was all home made. From the book "Thrive Diet" I made a batch of gel and an 'energy pudding' that kept me going. Now neither of these look terribly appetizing, but they taste great and kept me going. So I'll be experimenting with them some more in the upcoming weeks.
That's it for now,
D.
With 33 days to go until the Blackfoot, there is something quite encouraging about racking up the miles; 24 on Saturday and 29 on Sunday and still feel good on Monday. Other than a minor blister or two, I feel pretty darn good today. In fact, if my stomach settles down, I'll probably go for an easy hour or so later this evening just to move my body.
Saturday's run was pretty uneventful. I ran with the marathon clinic I'm leading, we did around 20 miles in 3:15. Prior to that, I ran to the starting point to get a few miles in at a slightly quicker pace.
Sunday had some interesting moments. I went up to Bird's Hill Park to run the trails. I was going to meet my friend Cheryl and run with her for a bit and then continue on for much longer on my own. I got there early enough to get just over a mile onto the trail when my phone rang, she was there. So I doubled back and we set off again. We ended up doing about 15k together; which was probably good for me because I did these earlier miles at a slower pace than I normally do. Once we found another trail head, off I went with the notion that I'd most likely see Cheryl once or twice depending on how we each chose to do the various short loops to make up our miles for the day. So far, the trails were in amazing condition, mostly dry with just some soft muddy spots and the odd horse dung mess.
As it turns out, I missed a turn and had to double back so I met her again just as she was coming to the corner I missed, so we commiserated over the muck we finally discovered a mile or two back and off we went on the right trail. Within a few hundred metres, we came across more water and mud. At first, we did some bushwacking to try and stay dry; but after the first few initial wet foot moments, it was a mutual decision to just go for broke and plunge through the water and mud.
Even though it is near the end of April and the sun has been shining quite nicely for a few weeks, this water was COLD! We even crunched through some ice at one point! After a mile of this, we finally found dry ground! Our shoes were soaked, Cheryl actually wrung out her socks. As we once again got going, I told her that if I came across more slop like that I'd turn around and come back so we could do it together. She ever so sweetly said "I don't want to see you again!"
The rest of that trail loop was pretty much dry which was good as it gave my feet a chance to dry and warm up. Getting back to the parking lot, I changed socks and headed back out onto the trails. The rest of the run was great, even managed to knock of the last few miles at a pretty fast pace without feeling like I was going to puke.
My fuel for these runs was all home made. From the book "Thrive Diet" I made a batch of gel and an 'energy pudding' that kept me going. Now neither of these look terribly appetizing, but they taste great and kept me going. So I'll be experimenting with them some more in the upcoming weeks.
That's it for now,
D.
