Running Chart YTD 2005

Running Chart YTD 2005
Originally uploaded by shersteve.

Another milestone as I recorded 602 miles for the year to date with my run today. This years mileage now exceeds all the four prior years.

One month left in the summer and a very busy one at that: Three opportunities for the 400 (possibly less as they aren't doing the 400 each week). One more Pub Run (8/10). The Falmouth Road Race (8/14). The club Grand Prix mile (8/17).

Time to taper a little. Need to keep the legs fresh and avoid injury. Need to pay extra attention to walking, recovering on days off, and stretching post run.

I hope your summer running is going well.

Good Article from Active.com

I agree with these ten items.

Buttermilk Falls State Park

Visiting Ithaca today, I found this park close to the hotel and decided to try running on the trails to get the workout in for the day. My daughter, preparing for the fall high school cross country season, was ready to run as well. We decided to try the Rim trail and return the Gorge trail. It was a mistake to try running it. The trail footing was okay, the elevation rise was too steep for what we were prepared to do, especially with other hikers on the trail. We did make it up and down with a good fast hiking pace. The Larch Meadow trail was flatter and a grassy mile loop mostly through some woods. This was much better for us to run on. And run we did.

Comparing what we saw to the web site photo, we may have been at the wrong place. The water shown in the picture clearly was not present today. The drought being experienced in the Midwest may be having an effect here. An excuse to some back sometime in the late spring to see what the water flow is like then. It may be more like what is in the photo.

A good workout on different terrain. Not quite the mileage total that the log book will like but some good memories and stories to take their place.

Quick recap

Let's see, where did I leave off?

The first 400 at the meet on Wednesday 7/13 was a 65.8. Even though I had taken it easy the night before, it was not enough. My legs just did not have it. I will need to adjust for the next time.

The second "pub run" was a good one. I ran relatively even splits (7:20, 7:30, 7:20) and ran 23:12 for the 5K.

I ran twice during my visit to Chicagoland on the weekend of 7/15-7/18. We had a nice walk in the Morain Hills park and almost went back to run some of the loops. Instead I stayed closer to my brother's house and ran through the Cuba Meadows Preserve. It was about 90 and humid so I decided to follow Falstaff's advice (discretion is the better part of valor) and limited my runs to about 4-5 miles both days.

It was still humid on Tuesday for the hill workout and while I participated, I only did the warm up/warm down loops to meet with the group.

The prep for Wednesday's meet was for naught as the event schedule changed, and even though the 400 was advertised for the six week series, it was to happen on this night. Oh well, not the end of the world. Thursday was a good track workout. I might end up missing the next meet so I'll just have more time to prepare for the next time.

End of recap....

The hardest thing

Good hill workout tonight. I feel a little guilty in that I did not push as hard as I normally would. I have the first of the track meets tomorrow night. My first crack at the 400. But a good workout overall and good conversation with the smaller than normal group.

At one point in the warm down run, one of my running poems crafted many years ago came up out of the depths of the archives. I found it cool to have come up from memory so quickly like that. Well, I'll admit that I had been thinking of it off and on and had even gone looking for a written copy of it but I was unsuccessful in that effort which may have got the mind to working its wonders.

While I still remember it:

The hardest thing
is the getting up
out of
the soft easy chair

walking to the hall
to reach for my
shirt and shorts

once that far
yesterday's lingering sweat
takes over

Any day you can run is a good day, enjoy it!

Vacation week - recap

The trip to central Pennsylvania provided the opportunity for a couple of good runs over new terrain twice this week. On our way into Weikert, I had marked out what I thought would be the five mile mark and set to run to that last Sunday. I made it there and back again, 39 minutes out, 41 minutes back but it wasn't exactly five miles. The spot turned out to be 4.5 miles away for a total run of nine miles. Close, and all-in-all a good run. Rolling farm country. Tree covered ridges along the perimeter.

On Wednesday, I ran to the 2.5 mile mark I had noted when measuring the Sunday run. The same rolling farm country but shorter distance made for a different run. The weather was cooler so that also helped. I went out in 22 minutes and came back in 21. A good run.

On Thursday, I did 8 x 100 meter pickups at the track and then a good 200. The weather was cooler still (about 50 degrees) and I was cautious warming up and striding to see that I was good and loose before turning on some speed.

On Saturday, I ran with my daughter for an easy four miles through town and then went on to add on another two mile loop for a total of six for the day.

Today there were four of us for the Pacer's ten mile group (there were seven others for the six mile run). I managed to stay with the other three until about the four mile mark when they started to pick up the pace. I left out a one mile loop at the five mile mark and turned back to finish the course with four miles to go. I knew that with four to go, getting ahead of the other three would help to keep my pace up so they would not catch me before the finish. If I had stayed behind them, I would have continued to loose contact with them and ended up running slower (and one less mile) but the pace/effort was more important than the extra mile. I did slow somewhat but managed to stay enough on pace so that they did not catch me.

The first open track meet at the high school comes up on Wednesday. My first shot at running the 400. There will be five more times to meet my goal. Hopefully, I will meet it without needing to use all six attempts. Based upon what I have done thus far, it may still take a couple of tries. It will depend on how fresh I am coming into Wednesday.

With the Pacers hill workout scheduled for Tuesday's I may have to adjust what I would do there at least once. We'll see how it goes.

I hope your running finds you healthy and fresh.

If not, what can you change to be fresh for a run?

If you would like some suggestions, post a comment or send me an email.

Enjoy!

Friday night

Track work out last night went well. Only a couple of weeks until the summer open meets start on July 13th. That will bring the first of 6 opportunities to run the 400 M and meet or exceed my goal time. Ran 6 x 200's last night. Felt pretty good. Stayed strong through the six repeats. Did not drop as fast as I wanted to but I started at 33, dropped to 32 for the next 2 and then to 31 for the last three. Not bad for the first time on the track in three weeks.

Will need to do some 100's before coming back to the track. Need to try and get the legs turning quicker. Will work that into one or more of my runs in the next couple of days.

Heading out of town for a bit. To the wilds of central PA to visit some friends there. Will have new roads and territory to explore.

Catch you later. Happy running!