Tuesday
Treadmill run 4x1 mile @5% grade .25 recovery between then half mile cooldown
1....8:57
2....8:52
3....8:42
4....8:10
Total 5.5 miles
4/4/09
Saturday
Long 3 hour run/ trail workout. I could have run at Pineland with the trail monsters today (which would have been lots of fun) but instead decided I needed to do my long run without time in mind. I just signed up for the Bradbury trail series and I had an itching to run there, besides, It is more important at this stage to get in the 3 hours with as tough a workout as I could muster up.
Well be careful what you wish for!!! Tough was a light word for the conditions on the mountain. There was a mixture of snow,mud,water,wet ice, sometimes all at the same time. The snow on the trail that was not water covered ice, was soft on top, crusty underneath and in many places there was running water or mud underneath that.
I took the screws out of my northface trail running assuming they would not be needed. It was great when crossing the rocks and open trails but I missed them dearly on the packed snow and ice......do they make automatic retracting spikes? If so, I sure could have used them on this run.
The sudden action of the ground giving way and finding myself in calf deep mud or knee deep crusty snow or worse 2 foot deep cold water, caused me to worry a bit about injuries. Consequently I ran a bit slower pace than I knew I could handle. The rain covered ice caused me to struggle with the hill parts of the trail. When I finally hit the open parts of the trail with solid ground, it felt good to open things up a bit and push the pace.
There was a couple times that a boat would have been a good thing to have with me. The two times I made it to the rock at the summit gave me a look at a huge foggy blanket instead of a beautiful view to the ocean. After two trips to the top, I crossed the street to the east side with the hopes of some better trails with less snow.
That didn't happen and I spent much of the time postholing the snow only to find a foot of cold water waiting for me underneath. Other times I was sliding around the wet ice on the snowmobile trails and still dodging the deep mud areas.
Now, don't get the idea that I didn't enjoy the run as it was a great experience and I could feel the core work, the leg work and serious balance work with this run. I came close but somehow did not go down once....perhaps that just means I didn't try hard enough.
This picture doesn't show it well but the ice is covered with fresh rain and I don't think anything is slipperier than that.
Here is a very odd looking tree.....what the heck caused it to grow this way?
This picture was taken after an ice "bridge" gave way and dropped me strait down into the flowing 2 foot deep water lurking underneath. Yes it was quite cold and I was actually lucky I didn't break anything.
Total run 3:08:15 and 12.1 miles giving me an average pace of 15:34 ....seems slow but the conditions were quite tough.
4/05/09
Sunday
My son was home for the weekend and I ended up running with him. I was still quite tired from yesterday but figured I would take it easy and see how I felt running a bit fatigued.
My left calf was quite tight, the right glute was sore, my right ankle was a bit sore from twisting in on the mountain and all my upper body muscles were lame. I thought for sure this woould cause a tough run and work against me but actually it went quite well and I felt very strong the whole 8 miles.
This was suprising as it was the same course that kicked my butt last weekend. My pace was over a minute per mile faster and I powered the mile long hill like I was out for an easy run. I had plenty left for a decent kick at the end, so Go figure huh?
8 mile run 1:10:30 ....8:49 pace.
Four hours later I was off for a run with Mrs. Pathfinder and enjoyed her company for 2.6 miles. Overall a very productive weekend and giving me 30.6 miles total for the week. I think I deserve a nice easy relaxing night and plan to do just that.
2.6 miles walking the hills 12:13 average pace. Running pace average 10:30. Not bad for her second run hey?
Proof of spring!!!
4 comments:
Great stuff Kevin!
I know, I too am bummed when time and distance don't quite match up with expectations, but, I know for me, that is the compulsive road runner still rearing his ugly head, knowing full well that time on the trails can be SO variable.
The sheer adventure at Bradbury looked like SO much fun. To hell with the pace. PF will feel relatively tame after long stuff at Bradbury (so I hear).
Stay healthy! Seven short weeks to go!
-Rob
Nice work on the long run. Now you see why we decided to switch to Pineland when we did. There is a month long period (which we are in the middle of) where Bradbury is virtually unrunnable. I've also learned not to take screws out until the end of April. Basically there is no such thing as dry ground this time of year so the screws won't be a problem as they sink into the mud, and you'll be glad you have them when you run across those last few remaining patches of ice.
Yeah, It was quite a run. I MUST SAY THAT IT WAS VERY GOOD TRAINING.
this weekend I won't be runing because of the surgery yesterday but I think I will run Pineland next weekend.
I received my Nathan vest today....it seems very comfortable.
Thanks for picking up that flag, although I'm not sure that it's ours. In September I went out the week after the Bruiser to make sure we hadn't left any flags behind, I found a whole bunch and started picking them up and then realized that it was someone else marking the course for a bike race that was going on the following weekend and was using pretty much the same course as us and the same type of making. So I like to blame the bikers for not picking up after themselves.
I hope you recover quickly and are back on the trails soon.
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