Archive for: cold

Cool Running

Posted by Jim on November 29, 2011

Bear Creek TrailA couple times this year I have run the Back Country Trail at Cloudland Canyon State Park to get some trail running experience.  This is what the trail looked like today.  My friend Greg “Sourdough” Foster took this photo while hiking at the park while I stayed in the slightly warmer valley down below. Just this past Friday I rolled my ankle on this trail and today was my first run since that slight injury.  I stayed away from the frozen trail.

Since I hadn’t run since Friday I decided to put in a couple extra miles.  I did 6.4 miles on an asphalt trail in about 1 hour and 12 minutes.  The ankle felt great, so I’m not worried about it slowing me down.  Actually, I felt good all around with the exception of the frigid 38 degree temperature.  But I was ready: gloves, hat, layered tech shirts and running jacket and pants.  The only thing that I didn’t manage to keep toasty warm were my toes.  I should have put on an extra pair of socks.  But it wasn’t that bad.

I ran the first mile a little fast and had trouble keeping myself in the correct heart rate zone.  I think my body was just trying to keep warm.  I settled in to an 11:30 per mile pace after the second mile.  With just under a mile to go, I decided to ignore the heart monitor and just run at the pace I felt comfortable with.  It was a good finish to a good run.

Categories Clothing & Equipment, Training
Comments (1)

Time To Catch Up

Posted by Jim on November 29, 2011

Okay, I’ve been gone for more than a week because of the holidays.  Family was in town and we had a great Thanksgiving.  So, let me catch you up on how the training is going:

Monday, Nov. 21 – I ran four miles on the most beautiful trail in this region.  I ran the Sitton’s Gulch trail from the bottom of Lookout Mountain (near Trenton, GA) to Hemlock Falls in Cloudland Canyon State Park.  This run is a climb up of over 600 feet in two miles before turning around and heading back down hill.  The trail follows Daniel Creek as it cascades over huge boulders and through a forest of hemlock and other beautiful trees.  This is a run (or hike) that everyone should do when in this area.  And be sure to bring a camera.  You will want to share the experience with your friends.

Tuesday, Nov. 22 – Today it was a 4.3 mile run at the local park on the crushed rock path.  The run was just over 55 minutes, and although rain was forecast, there was hardly a drop during the run.  It was a very pleasant 68 degrees.

Turkey Time – I took off Wednesday and Thursday to spend time with family and enjoy a wonderful meal.  And I was thrilled to see that I only put on 1.25 pounds.  I was careful not to over-indulge, but the potatoes, turkey, dressing and pie still added a little extra baggage.

Friday, Nov. 25 – This was my longest trail run to date.  I ran six miles (3 loops) on the Back Country Trail at the Cloudland Canyon State Park.  Despite the slightly damp trail and leaves hiding rocks and roots, I managed to not twist an ankle or take a fall.  Well, that is, until I finished my run and decided to make a quick dash to join my family who was hiking part of the trail.  Yep, I turned a corner and my left foot rolled to the side.  It wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t walk on it, but I knew it would mean a few days off of my training.

So here I am today, Tuesday, November 29.  I’ve let my ankle rest for 96 hours, and it feels pretty good.  I’m going to run today, but it won’t be on a trail or crushed rock.  I don’t want to risk reinjuring the foot again.  So I will either run the asphalt trail at the church (probably in the cold rain) or stay dry on the treadmill in the garage.  The treadmill is looking pretty good right now.  There is snow up on Lookout Mountain and it’s only 38 degrees here in the valley.  But I need to get back to running as I have a race coming up in just a couple weeks.

Categories Diet, Trail Runs and Hikes, Training
Comments (0)

PurpleStride 5K in Chattanooga

Posted by Jim on November 12, 2011

PurpleStride BalloonWhen I got up this morning at 6:30 am, I went directly to my computer to check the weather in Chattanooga:  29 degrees Fahrenheit.  Well, I’d rather run in the cold than run in the heat…but this cold?  Shelley and I arrived at the course around 8:00 am and things were already looking better.  The frost was off the ground and the sun was already working it’s magic.  I was ready to run my first race in training for the Nashville Marathon next April.

The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network folks had done a great job putting together this event.  A band was playing, clowns were tying balloon animals and there was plenty of purple around in t-shirts, gifts, balloons and banners.  Many of the runners and walkers were attending in honor of someone they knew who has or had pancreatic cancer.  I’m not sure of the total attendance, but I estimated it was over 500.  Maybe 300+ would be running or walking the 5K.

As we neared the start of the race, it felt warm enough to run in shorts with a technical shirt and my wonderfully purple race shirt.  I kept my gloves on, remembering my experience from Wednesday’s training run.

Me at the start of the raceSo here I am ready to start the race, sizing up my competition.  I figure I’ve got a chance against the guy with the sign in front of me.  Really, how fast can you run with a sign attached to a tennis racquet?  Looking at this photo I can see that I need to either 1) keep working on the weight loss, 2) and/or improve my posture.  But hey, this blog is about honesty.  So here I am, bad posture and extruding belly waiting for the race to start.  Soon after this photo, the race coordinators informed us that we were facing the wrong direction.  So, I turned around and got ready to race.  The temperature was now a pleasant 44F.

The race was an out and back run from the First Tennessee Pavilion next to the UTC football stadium to a turnaround near the Tennessee River.  Given that I had not run any speed workouts or races for nearly 10 years, I didn’t know for sure what to expect.  I wore my heart monitor to track how things were going during the run.  I had no problem keeping my heart rate between 88 – 95% of my HRmax.  This is where I had decided I wanted to run the 5K.  I will use a lower HR zone for longer runs.

I was surprised how dead my legs felt for most of the run.  The hills were insignificant (except a short climb right before the finish), so I can’t blame that.  I think my body is simply not used to moving at such a fast pace (okay, fast by my standards).  Other than feeling like my legs didn’t want to keep up, I felt fine for the run.

My finishing sprint

As you can see from the above photo, I was winning the race here on the final sprint.  It seems that the 100+ people who were ahead of me all dropped out after 3.1 miles.  In the photo I had just finished that last little hill you see behind me and had about 80 yards to sprint to the finish.  I was quite pleased as I could see I would be finishing the race under the 31 minute goal I had set.

My walk back from the finish lineI crossed the line with the official clock saying 30:47 and my watch saying 30:22.  The difference was the time between the start of the race and when I crossed the starting line.  We wore timing chips, so the official time will probably be on the Internet in the next week or so.

I had pushed hard the last couple hundred yards, and my body was showing it.  My pulse at the finish line was 179 BPM and my breathing was quite hard.  As usual for me after a run like this, I had a bad cough that lasted for a few minutes.    After the finish turned in my timing chip and walked back to meet my coach, photographer, wife and one-person cheering section.

Pleased to be doneOverall, it was a great morning.  I had a good run and felt great afterward.  I got to help the cause of pancreatic cancer treatment and see the importance of this cause for many people who had been affected in some way.  It reminded me of the importance of the reason I am running the Nashville Marathon and the children of St Jude Children’s Hospital.

I’m now going to start adding some speed workouts to my training starting with one workout every two weeks (when I’m not racing).  My next race will be the Lookout Mountain 10K trail run on December 17, 2011.  I’m excited because both of my sons will be visiting from California for Christmas.  They will be joining Shelley to cheer me on at the 10K run.

Thanks for reading my blog and following my effort to finish a marathon.  Only 168 more days before I head to Nashville and achieve this lifetime goal.

Categories Races
Comments (2)