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This morning I worked on organizing some files for the 2006 Mach League season, waiting for the temperature to warm up. It was just 20 F at sunrise but by noon it had warmed to 33 F and the sun was out. Time for my weekly long run...
This time I took Haven with me while poor Beacon stayed home, watching us leave through the window (see photo above) and whining. Amanda was riding the stationary bike again while I ran. Haven and I ran my usual North Country Trail route up to Fallassburg park and back, 11.6 miles. She had a blast! And she was very obedient, too. She never ventured more than about 100 feet away and the few times we came upon other people or dogs on the trail, she returned to me when I called. I was also teaching her to return when I blew a whistle, which she picked up easily. One time a bird cheeped and Haven thought it was my whistle and she came running back! Every time we approached a road I'd stop to leash her up, otherwise she was able to run free. After about 7 miles she started looking tired, and after 10 miles she was actually lagging behind me! She was so worn out. When we finally got home she just plopped down against the sofa and lay there for a while (see photo below). I'm looking forward to taking Beacon out there sometime!
One of these days I'll have to write about something other than running in this journal, but today's run was pretty interesting. I ran for 21.3 miles! It took me 3:45 to do it. My route took me from downtown Lowell to downtown Ada, then to downtown Cascade and finally almost back home. Amanda picked me up about three miles from our house. It was tempting to say "what's another three miles" and finish it out, but my legs were cramping for the last two miles and I wasn't going to gain anything by continuing much longer.
As it turned out, that run kicked my ass. Amanda and I brought home some Subway but I was only able to eat half of a six-inch, to go along with barely being able to walk and my entire body feeling sore. I did dehydrate toward the end of the run as I finished the last of my Gatorade around mile 18, but I was probably dehydrated before that since the cramping began at mile 19. Actually, at mile 14 my legs were feeling really tired and it occurred to me that I hadn't eaten anything the entire run, so I ate the Power Bar that I brought along and within ten minutes my legs felt better again (it was one of the Power Bars that Mom and Dad gave us yesterday; incidentally, it tasted very good).
Speaking of the protein stuff that M&D brought out, we also tried that chocolate protein shake mix. We'll see tomorrow how it works as a recovery drink - if my muscles feel good, then maybe it has some merit - I drank some right after my run. However, Amanda and I agreed that it tastes like melted chocolate ice cream mixed with sawdust. No kidding, it tastes the way sawdust smells in a newly framed house! Still, it tastes way better than that Accelerade that we gave M&D to try. :)
One good part about this run was that I averaged about 10:18 per mile, which is a very good pace for me for such a long run. I started out by walking 3 minutes for every 30 minutes running and did that for the first ten miles, then it dropped down to 3 minutes for every 20. Twice I walked for 8 minutes, and during the rough patch around mile 14 I was walking 3 minutes every 10 or 15. All told I must've walked 30-50 minutes and still maintained a good overall pace, so when I was running I was running pretty fast.
On December 31 I went for my 128th and final run of the year, taking Haven and Beacon with me while Amanda tried out our new camera despite the sleet coming down. As you can see, we caught up to Amanda near the riverwalk behind the old school building. It was a slow recovery run because the day before I surprised myself by running five miles in just 36 minutes! I had no idea I could keep up that pace for even three miles. It's nice to see such improvement once in a while.
During 2005 I logged 625 miles, compared to 284 in 2004. The average was 4.9 miles per run, although the distances ranged from 1.4 (trying out a new pair of trail shoes) to 26.2 (the Grand Rapids Marathon) miles. I spent a total of 105 hours on the run in 2005. I don't have any specific training goals for 2006 - yeah it'd be cool if I passed 1000 miles but I have to be careful that I don't overtrain just to add up the miles. I would, however, like to try a local 50-mile race this fall, plus another marathon sometime.
2006's training indeed got started today, running 11.6 miles along the North Country Trail. Man, I was tired from staying up late for the new year (Amanda and I were throwing snowballs for Haven and Beacon in the backyard at midnight) and I ran pretty slow. But I lasted for the 2:25 it took me to get back home.
By the way, we just picked up our first foster dog of the year! A young lab/shepherd mix named Buttercup has joined us for a week or so.