Twenty-Two Miles

In two runs.

Thursday, July 17, Sweet Sixteen:

Sixteen miles on my favorite road along the tracks. The bad: 74 degrees with a dew point of 69 (warm & humid), rocky dirt trail (soft, hence slow), little wind. The good: It’s my favorite trail despite its failings, it’s FLAT as can be, there are no cars (or people, for that matter), and this morning I saw deer, racoons, foxes, a young pheasant, and innumerable rabbits. As I ran in the pre-dawn semi-darkness the silhouette of a blue heron, or perhaps a great egret, floated by overhead. Such magnificent birds. And of course I was treated to the symphony of wakening birds of all kinds, most of which I can’t even identify by song. By all measures, this was a great run.

The plan was to run SLOW in conditions like this, and that part of the plan certainly succeeded. The hip flexors did not hurt, nor did anything else that I worry about. The lisfranc joints in the right foot bothered a little after mile 12; I probably twisted the foot a little on a rock or something. Water every 2 miles, caffeinated gel at 4 & 12, regular gel at 8. Splits: 10:03, 9:05, 9:07, 11:32, 10:10, 9:42, 10:09, 9:34, 9:52, 10:12, 10:54, 21:33 (2 mi), 10:19, 9:54, 10:10, total 2:42:15, pace 10:08. I’m happy, it's a masterpiece.


Tuesday, July 15, Two-Toot Salute:

A lovely, uneventful run on my favorite rocky dirt road along the railroad tracks. Six miles, 61 degrees, dew point 51. Cool summer running. My legs felt like lead for the first quarter mile (day after dex?) but pretty soon everything was normal. I had felt some pain in the right hip flexors when I got out of bed (!), but that pain didn’t show up at all during the run.

I met a train on the way back, the engineer giving me two short toots as I waved. Love that! Then it thundered past, spewing diesel exhaust, rattling and tooting off into the distance behind me.

Splits: 9:30, 9:11, 9:28, 9:28, 9:30, 8:56, total 56:02, pace 9:20. Good enough for a tricky dirt trail.

	Post-run breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, blueberries, organic strawberries, organic walnuts, organic nectarine, Dove dark chocolate, nonfat organic milk.
Recent lunch: Organic chard with dried cranberries, gluten-free cracker, sardine, cantaloupe.
	Recent salad/dinner: Organic romaine lettuce, cucumber, organic nectarine, organic chicken breast, blue cheese, pepper, organic red wine vinegar.

Tour de France Addict

Sunday, July 13:

Why would I be out running at 4:30 in the morning? Because today the Tour de France live coverage began at 6:30. Downside: Sleep deficit, although I did go to bed early the night before. Also, I needed a headlight and reflective vest. Upside: I ran through the sunrise (a nice one, I like that), saw deer three times including (I think) a mule deer which would be unusual in this part of Minnesota, watched an eagle patrol the road and the lake for roadkill and careless fish, saw blue herons and great egrets, and ran on my favorite dirt trail beside the tracks as a train thundered past. 64 degrees with a 15 mph wind, mostly a crosswind, what an invigorating morning! Running doesn’t get a lot better than this.

Splits: 9:27, 9:08, 9:48, 8:33, 9:39, 9:26, 9:05, 10:31, 9:43, 9:45, total 1:35:04, ten miles, pace 9:30 overall. Water at miles 4 & 6, a fountain in the park. Same run as last Thursday, same time. Breathing was mostly four footfalls per full breath, which is a sustainable pace, neither a race pace nor an easy jog. I walked up most hills, and never heard a peep from the grumpy old hip flexors. No pains, all good.

Saturday, July 12:

St Croix Valley Runners, five miles in 44:36, pace 8:55. Very nice run with Doug, Roy, Dave, Candy, Dave (2), and Luke. George was there but was nursing an injury. Excellent, cool weather, humidity dropping as we ran. Part of the route is now under construction - some of the group chanced the mud and ran it anyway, while some of us (me included) took a paved detour that turned out to be about the same distance, as we all met up again a few minutes later.

	Post-run oatmeal: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, organic nectarine, blueberries, cantaloupe, organic grapes, organic walnuts, organic pomegranate juice, organic nonfat milk.
Saturday dinner: Organic chicken breast, organic nectarine, sweet-potato salad including sweet potatos, cucumbers, peas, eggs, onions, celery, yogurt, vinegar. That is such a good salad - ask Sunshine for the recipe.

Ten More Miles

Ten more miles this morning in the sunrise, 64 degrees, what a lovely run on roads and trails. Excellent! This completes 33 miles for the week, as I probably won’t run tomorrow and Saturday starts the new week. That was the goal, next week 37 if all goes well.

The right hip flexors did start to squawk a little at about mile 7, but I shifted to a run/walk for a while and they quieted down. Huh. Splits: 9:22, 9:02, 9:29, 8:59, 9:30, 18:29 (2 mi), 11:04, 9:21, 9:40, total 1:34:56, average pace 9:30.

This morning's post-run breakfast: Irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, mango, papaya, pineapple, blueberries, organic strawberries, organic walnuts, organic nonfat milk, organic pomegranate juice.
	Wednesday's Salad / Dinner: Organic romaine, cucumber, leftover organic chicken, organic nectarine, Sunshine's homemade guacamole, organic red wine vinegar.

Warm-weather Training

Tuesday, July 8:

I think of the Gateway Trail as flat, because it's an old railroad bed, but in fact it isn’t flat. Most of the time it is sloping gently up or down, and in a few places there actually are short, but substantial hills. I decided to watch the Tour de France first this morning, which didn’t end until eleven, then go run ten miles on the Gateway.

The temp was 79 at noon, with a cloudless sky, but happily our part of the Gateway is nestled among tall shade trees for much of its length. A nice crosswind improved the weather too, and my hat brim never did drip today until I finished the run and started my stretches, an indication that the humidity was much lower today than yesterday. No pains of any kind. Warm-weather training at its best.

A fly flew into my mouth at one point, and of course I quickly spit it out. Then I noticed a neat pile of horse manure right next to me on the adjacent horse trail. I considered the possibilities, nay the probabilities, and rinsed out my mouth a couple of times with water from the bottle I was carrying. Uff-da.

My sweeties were on the Gateway too today, and we crossed paths once. That’s always nice.

Splits: 9:44, 9:03, 9:58, 9:35, 9:29, 8:54, 10:33, 9:20, 9:31, 10:59, total 1:37:04, average pace 9:42, same as yesterday’s 8-miler. That’s actually the right pace for a 4:15 marathon. I wonder how much farther I could go at that pace on a cooler morning. A lot, I think. I’ll be finding out soon; the training schedule has some 20-mile runs in it, plus some long races if my rickety old body holds together.

Monday, July 7:

I had intended to run 8 miles yesterday, but that was the right day to measure a race, so today’s goal was 8 miles at any speed. I chose my favorite dirt trail along the railroad track, which worked just fine. 70 degrees, bright sun, and very humid, so I ran slowly. At about mile six I thought I felt a little something in the right hip flexors, so I switched to a walk/run. The soft trail is a little like running up a slight hill, I think, which might put a little extra strain on the hip flexors.

Splits: 9:20, 9:39, 11:02 (1.2 mi), 9:16, then I lost track of mile marks, but the total was 1:19:43 for 8.2 miles, a pace of 9:43. Plenty good considering that my hat brim started to drip after only three miles, an indication of the humidity. And it’s DEX day, which makes it hard for muscles to absorb glucose, so I’m happy with the time.

Sunday, July 6:

I was going to run eight miles today, but measured the Whiz Bang 10k race for certification instead.

Saturday, July 5:

Saturday morning the St Croix Valley runners were at it again, 7:00 am at Stillwater's Northland Tennis Courts, five miles. Only five runners showed up, the rest in bed because of partying the night before, or running in the Afton Trail Race. I had a nice run with Doug at a pace of 8:33, which was a push for both of us. Lovely morning, fifth straight day of running, no pain!

Friday, the Fourth of July:

Marine on St Croix annual fourth of July 4.1-mile race. A wonderful, traditional downhill race for everyone, strollers too. The weather could hardly have been better - 73 degrees, low humidity, clear skies, no wind to speak of. A beautiful morning, and for that matter all of July 4 was exceptional. I ran the 4.1 miles in 32:10, for a pace of 7:57 according to the official results, 7:51 by my calculation if the race really IS 4.1 miles. I have run that race four minutes faster, but today that was not to be. No pains. Excellent fireworks in Stillwater that night too.

Thursday, July 3:

Just three miles on a fairly flat route, third straight day of running. What a beautiful morning, 56 degrees and sunny, and the route offers quite bit of shade. No pains. Splits 9:16, 8:52, 8:22, total 26:30, average pace 8:50.



Monday's breakfast: Gluten-free oatmeal, blueberries, mango, organic nectarine, filberts, walnuts, pecans, Dove dark chocolate, nonfat organic milk.




Monday's lunch: Canned wild-caught Alaskan sockeye salmon with cottage cheese and dill, papaya, organic peas.



Tonight's dinner: Leftover turkey, leftover assorted organic vegetables, organic chard with dried cranberries, chives, and pistachios, cucumber, organic red wine vinegar.

Cool Calendar Program

We recently discovered a nice calendar program called Mozilla Sunbird. If you are interested, here is a post about it.

No Problem

Flat four-mile course near the house, 35:56, pace 8:59. No pains of any kind. Looks like I’ll just have to run flat routes and take whatever miles that will give me until the hip flexors get strong again. Anyway I’m caught up on mileage for the week; let’s see how tomorrow goes.



Recent dinner: Turkey curry with organic turkey, organic squash.

Railroad Trail

After experiencing some hip-flexor pain on Sunday, I planned to run up to 10 miles today or until the flexors started to hurt, whichever came first. I’ve previously dealt with hip-flexor pain by NOT running up hills, and even have a couple of flat running routes near the house just for that purpose. The Gateway Trail, within driving distance, is also pretty flat, but my favorite dirt-road trail by the railroad tracks is flattest of all.

So that’s what I did. Drove to a central point, ran 2 ½ miles one way, then back, intending to run 2 ½ miles the other way and back. But after the first five miles I could feel the right hip flexors already, so I ran one more mile and stopped. The pain didn’t get very bad in that last mile, but I think it was best to stop. I’ll try another flat four miles tomorrow and see what happens.

Six miles in 57:04, pace 9:30. Perfect pace, except that this is a dirt trail which takes a little more energy than a blacktop road, so I suppose it was equivalent to 9:00 or so. If I judged by breathing, it was even more work than that. Warm weather, 69 degrees and moderate humidity. A train passed by as I ran - I love that little road.



Recent breakfast: Gluten-free oatmeal with organic flame raisins and dried cranberries, banana, blueberries, organic nectarine, organic pear, mango, organic walnuts.