Tuesday, July 14, 2009

North Carolina, Mt. Falcon, the lost key, and The Longest Run Ever

OK - y'all are going to get a recap of my recent running in one post. As Sandy would say - "This blogging stuff is hard work". Here are some quick thoughts from some recent runs.

We took a nice week long vacation to North Carolina at the end of June. It was just what I needed. I did a few runs through Wrightsville Beach, man it was hot! Any speed-up I was hoping for at sea-level was nullified by the heat. But is there a better way to cool off after a run than to jump in the ocean?

After North Carolina I did a run through Mt. Falcon. I had never been to the western part of the area before, and it was spectacular. I was the first car in the parking lot @ 6:00 on a Sunday morning, and when I finished the lot was full. I ran Turkey Trot to Castle Trail to Parmelee to Meadow Trail back to Castle. It was almost exactly 10 miles, and took me 2 hours. I ran the whole thing, stopping 2 times for shots and once for the bathroom. That climb up Castle Trail feels longer than Chimney Gulch / Lookout Mountain, but maybe that's just because I've done Lookout Mountain several times this year.

I've been trying to make it to the track as often as possible this year. One morning after 4 x 1 mile repeats, I was feeling really good about myself - I had gotten up pretty early and made it back home by 6:30. When I tried to get back into our house, I realized I had lost my key....oops. I knew Molly was still asleep, and I contemplated knocking on Adam and Elisa's door, because I figured they would be up...but instead I rang our door bell. Faithfully Meg started barking, and a few minutes later Molly appeared. She admitted to laying in bed and thinking "Why isn't Scott taking care of Meg's barking...", before realizing that it must be me at the door. Luckily this didn't wake Audrey up...that's never a pretty site...

On July 3rd I did another early morning run. From our house, to the Cherry Creek to Downing, around Wash Park, downing over to Cheesman park, 7th ave back to the Cherry Creek, and then home. All told it was 16 miles. It took me 2:45 to finish, after puttering along for the first hour, only finishing 5 miles. I had a minor set back w/ my fueling strategy - I usually do Clif Shots, but we didn't have any of those, so I went w/ some random shot blocks I found in our cupboard. Not the smartest thing to do @ 5:15 in the morning with no lights on. I ended up with one pack that was so old they were like hard candy, and the other was flavored "Margarita Salt". Whoever thought that Margarita Salt would be a good flavor for a shot block clearly has spent too much time at the bar, and not enough time exercising. They were awful. I think I ate a total of about 5 shots in 2 hours and 45 minutes - which is just shy of 200 calories. I think that's a little under the recommended nourishment.

16 miles was the longest run I've ever done, and all in all it was pretty uneventful. No blisters, no cramps - I didn't even get bored. running around Cheesman was fantastic - I had only been there once before during the half-marathon. It was cool to be up so early and feel like I had gotten so much done before the day even started. I was definitely feeling it the next 2 days - on Sunday I did a run w/ Audrey to REI and back, and the last 1/2 mile I was pretty tired. But by Tuesday night I was feeling pretty normal and did a 6 mile run. Not too shabby!