Monday 1/24
AM: 8 miles (1:01:31). Floodwall + barefoot
After my first class, I jumped up on the floodwall for 6 miles and then did two miles on the turf field. Even though the turf had about three inches of untouched snow on it, I shed my shoes and went barefoot. It felt like I was floating on pillows and these are the times I want to trash all my shoes for good. Overall, my leg were feeling sluggish.
PM: 11 miles (1:28:07). Shawnee State Forest
Took Joe Stewert out to "real" trails of the forest for his first bout with them. This was probably not the best day to introduce the trails to him, as it was very slick. Him wearing the Saucony Kinvara's (no traction) was probably not the best idea either. We started from the 125 parking lot and headed counter-clockwise on the Main Loop, until the second #6 road crossing. We turned right on #6, left onto Silver Arrow, and right to loop up back around to my car on the Day Hike Trail; this was not the easiest of routes. I think I was semi-bonking by the end of this run, legs were again feeling tired.
Tuesday 1/25
AM: 18 miles (2:12:54). The Road(s) Not Taken
I'm not one to do a run of this distance purely on roads. I usually would do this on trails, grass, or some combination of those. Today though, after the first three miles of sloppy running on the trails, with my legs hurting, I decided to run the rest of this run on roads.
This run turned out to be one of my best runs in a while. I went out on Sedan-Crabtree and turned left on to Big Bear Creek Rd. I had never ran out here before, so this was all new. I found a small asphalt/gravel road, Edward Rd. and turned right onto it. This road probably lasted 2.5 miles. Turned left onto Mead Rd. and it too around 2.5 miles. Out and back.
The reason this run was so good was because it brought me back to my times of first getting into running. I remember running from my house out to back roads that I had never even driven on. I really loved doing this. Being in the country, there area lot of open fields, deer, dogs, friendly people, cows, horses, and its really good.
Same with today. Cows ran along the fence line, people outside their houses chopping wood smiled and waved at me, friendly dogs trotted beside me, and I watched deer play from a distance in the rolling fields; I even crossed the Pike County line on this run. This is the type of youthful adventure that drew me into running and it had been a long time since I've experienced this. I am thinking I need to go on these types of 'don't really know where I am" runs more often.
So, after a sluggish start to this run and my legs feeling beat, I was thinking of only doing about 12 miles and calling it a nice recovery day. This run turned out to be a lot longer and even faster then I imagined. I didn't drink water or take in any calories and feel strong.
PM: 6 miles (46:01). Brush Creek Area
After a long day, I am calling these the two best recovery runs I have did in a while. Legs feeling much better.
Wednesday 1/26
AM: 12 miles (1:28:12). Portsmouth and Floodwall
After my first class, I ran 8 on the floodwall and the rest up through town.
PM: 8.5 miles (1:05:03). Floodwall +Turf
Ran out and back on the floodwall again, plus a little extra down in the youth soccer field. At the end, I tried to go barefoot on the turf but the melting snow made it slushy and too wet/cold for me to handle, so I just ran around it with shoes on for a couple miles.
Thursday 1/27
AM: 8.5 miles (1:05:26). Brush Creek Area + Fire Tower
Ran the house trails, to the fire tower, and around on the roads.
PM: 8.5 miles (1:06:23). Brush Creek Area + Fire Tower
Basically, this was the same run as I did in the morning, just instead of the roads, I ran more on the trails.
Friday 1/28
AM: 10 miles (1:18:31). Brush Creek Area + Fire Tower
Woke up at 6:30 and decided to go run since I wasn't too tired. Ran up Fire Tower on the fresh couple inches of snow. Then I finished up on the slushy Sedan-Crabtree Rd.
PM: 7 miles (52:34). Floodwall + barefoot
After class, I ran out and back on the floodwall. Added two barefoot miles on the turf when I got back to campus. As soon as it gets a little drier/warmer, barefooting should become a lot more frequent.
Saturday 1/29
PM: 15 miles (1:55:18). Meigs County
I only did this one run today. Planned on doing 12 but it turned into such a nice day during my run I decided to do a little more and call it a day. Ran down Rocksprings, around Salisbury Elem., up around Meigs and 4 miles on the trails there (slow, muddy), and then back down Rocksprings. Near the end of this run, I envisioned I was running the end of a marathon and needed to run 7:30 for my last 1.5 miles to Qualify for the Olympic trails. Although I was probably actually only barely breaking 7 minute pace, I of course won the Marathon and qualified. Good run.
Sunday 1/30
AM: 4 miles (29:57). Meigs County
PM: 19 miles (2:22:11). Strouds Run
Parked at the Cucumber trailhead, ran up Rock Finger and onto Athens Trail to get to the lake. When I hopped on the road to get to the Sundown trail I caught up with two OU students who were running and asked if they wanted to run with me. They accepted and we did a loop around the entire lake via Sundown and Lakeside. When we got back to the Athens trail they split off and I headed back to the car.
This ended up being one of my best runs lately. I felt smooth, strong, and in control of my running. I ate a little 150 cal. fruit bar and had about 15 oz. of water. While I was alone, I was probably close to running 7 min. pace. Good day, good end of week.
Total Miles: 135.5
Total Time: 17:12:10
This is my second week of ending up with XXX.5 miles. Although I can't say I didn't do it on purpose. I want a round number to end the month.
This is also my highest week of mileage ever which is always a positive thing. For most of this week I was feeling slightly sluggish but the weekend runs proved to be a little more free feeling. The pain is my foot has gone away completely. I figured it would with a lot of icing. Now, there is some small inflammation in my left knee. I am thinking maybe the inflammation from my foot just simply moved up to me knee since it is in the same leg. It has not been a hindrance to my running though.
My training for Neuces (or really, just my training for anything this year) has gone very well. I am not sure what my mileage will get up to the next few weeks. I have about a month until the Neuces 50 and I suppose I will cut back a little in the weeks leading up. Who knows? I am just going to continue to run.
WMO
No comments:
Post a Comment