Archive for: long run

My Final Long Run…25 Miles

Posted by Jim on April 9, 2012

Number 25I’ve not written a blog in the past week because there has been so much going on lately.  I start a new job tonight (night shift), my wife is home from work for the last couple weeks with a foot problem, taxes are coming due and life is completely chaotic right now.  But I’m still getting in my training runs.

One Tuesday I ran a speed workout of 6.9 miles.  I ran 5 minute intervals at about half-marathon speed with 3.5 minutes of jogging and 1.5 minutes of walking between each interval.  I felt like it was a good workout.  I’m trying to avoid injuries this close to the marathon, so I thought this workout was just the right thing.  Overall, I finished the 6.9 miles in about 78 minutes.  It was a warm day, about 84 degrees.

The next day, Wednesday, I ran another 6.5 miles at an easy pace.  This run, like yesterday’s, was on the asphalt roads in the Chattanooga Battlefield Park.  As I’ve shared before, I really enjoy running in the park because of the scenery, the shade and the minimal amount of motor vehicle traffic.  This run, although a tad shorter than yesterday’s, was six minutes longer.  The weather today was a beautiful 74 degrees.

After taking a couple days off because of other priorities, I went back to the park for another run on Saturday.  This run was 5.3 miles at a moderate, but comfortable pace of just under 12:00 a mile.  I am hoping to run at about this pace for the marathon on April 28th.

Yesterday, Sunday, was my final long run for the marathon.  I will run some moderately long runs of 8-12 miles on each Saturday between now and the marathon, but this was the last 20+ mile run before the marathon.

I went to the Ridgeland High School track to do my run.  I’m trying to follow the doctor’s advice about running on more forgiving surfaces, especially for my long runs.  The school’s track is surfaced with recycled tires (like most school tracks these days).

My original plan was to run 22-23 miles, but as I was running I realize that that would mean completing 88-92 laps around the track.  And if I was going to run that far, why not just make it an even 100!  So I did.  I had filled several bottles of water and grabbed a couple Clif Bars and gel packets for the run.  I believe I drank nearly 100 ounces of water, 30 ounces of Gatorade (the original yellow, of course), and ate 840 calories during the run.  I also took Ibuprofen during  the run to help with the knee pain.

I fell much less knee pain than usual during this long run.  I’m not sure what helped the most, the pain killers or running on a softer surface.  Regardless, I was thrilled to finish with maybe half the pain that I felt after my last long run.  I even skipped icing the knees when I got home.  I did develop a sore toe/toe nail on my right foot from this long run.  Hopefully it doesn’t develop into anything that interferes with my running.

The 25 mile run took me five and a half hours.  I timed each split with my watch/heart monitor and was excited to see that I ran a negative split (a faster second half) by six minutes.  I felt so good after the 22nd mile that I ran the last three miles in 12:40, 10:44 and 9:25 respectively.  The average for the first 22 miles was 13:35 a mile.  I was particularly pleased with the sub 10 minute final mile.

[PhotoCredit: Lincolnian]

Categories Milestones, Training
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Chickamauga Battlefield Run

Posted by Jim on March 19, 2012

Chickamauga Battlefield cannonsI can’t believe how many beautiful places there are to run in the Chattanooga/Chickamauga area.  I thought that the Tennessee Riverwalk was my favorite place to run, but now the Chickamauga Battlefield is competing for that top rank.  The park was the site of one of the biggest battles of the Civil War, just ten miles south of Chattanooga.  The park management has worked to keep the landscaping as close as possible to how it appeared in September 1863.  This means most of the park is wooded with a scattering of open fields.  Various roads crisscross the park allowing a variety of routes for runners and bike riders.  Vehicle traffic is allowed on all of the paved roads, but traffic is limited to 25-35 miles per hour.

Running in the park usually means running in the shade of trees along the road.  The terrain is often flat or with some gently rolling hills.  And I have yet to run in the park and not see a deer or two, or on one occasion a couple dozen.  This weekend I headed over to the park for my weekend long run.

Since I ran 19 miles last weekend, I planned for 10 – 12 miles this weekend.  I decided that a run of about 2 1/2 to 3 hours would be about right.  I parked near the battlefield museum and started running on the west side of the park.  Since I knew about how long I should be running, I didn’t worry about the distance and just took any path that seemed interesting.  I figured I could measure the distance on Google Maps when I got home.  I crossed the park, ran north on the east side of the park and cut back to the west after  about two hours of running.  At one point I missed a turn I wanted to make and headed out of the park.  I turned around and found the path heading up a hill into the woods.  I had no realized from the map I was carrying that the path was really a dirt road.

I was not exactly sure where I was as the path entered the woods, and I soon found myself on the wrong path heading north.  After nearly three hours of running, I came out of the woods onto McFarland Avenue which borders the park on the north.  I ended my run and walked the mile back to my truck.  Total run time was 2:56 and I calculated the run at 12.2 miles.

[PhotoCredit: Rob Shenk]

Categories Training
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Running on the Riverwalk

Posted by Jim on February 21, 2012

Mile marker 0 on the Tennessee RiverwalkI had an interview near downtown Chattanooga today, so I decided to take a change of clothes and run on the Tennessee Riverwalk (just across the street from my interview). It was a chilly 52 degrees, but the sun was shining and the Riverwalk was busy. I parked by the Chickamauga Dam, changed clothes and hit the trail. Even though I had a long run yesterday, I was feeling great and decided to see how I did eliminating my walk breaks on this run.

My pace for the first mile was nice at 11:45. Again, since I run with a heart monitor, I expected that I would slow down over the next few miles. And I did. I decided to turn around at the two mile mark (easy to recognize by the Jim Collins metal sculptures place at each mile mark, see photo above). My run back was almost a minute slower per mile.

I finished the four mile run in just under 49 minutes. This is a pretty good pace for me right now. I stayed in my training zone of 132-150 heart beat per minute for 95% of the run. Overall, this was a great run for me. I feel confident now that my past injury is healed and I should have no problem training for the marathon these next two months. I still want to lose nearly 15 more pounds so that I’m running the marathon at a weight of about 235. But honestly, I’ll be happy to be under 240.

Tennessee Riverwalk and a view of Lookout MountainOne other note: since I am playing catch-up on my training, I have to accelerate my long run increases for the next several weeks. I’m thinking about adding 3 miles to my long run every other week. That would have me running my longest, a 22 mile run, just two weeks before the marathon. I had wanted to run up to 25 miles on my longest run before the marathon, but the 22 miles will have to do. I don’t want to injure myself from over-training.

(Original Photo Credit: Michael Tinkler)

Categories Diet, Training
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Training Run: November 8, 2011

Posted by Jim on November 8, 2011

Cloudland Canyon State ParkToday was a long run, so I filled a couple water bottles and headed up to Cloudland Canyon State Park on Lookout Mountain to run my 8.5 miles.  I started near the Interpretive Center and ran out the road on the West Rim.  It was an out and back run with a variety of hills and flats that I finished in just under 2 hours.  To stay within my long run heart rate zone, I had to stop running on a few of the steeper hills.  This is the hilliest course I have ran yet.

My knees were a bit tight, but not quite sore after 5+ miles.  I think the walk breaks help (still running 8 mins., then walking 2), but I’m expecting to have some knee pain on runs over 10 miles.  That’s really not so bad considering that 10 years ago I was feeling knee pain on any run over 6 miles.  Oh well, we will see.

The run was beautiful.  Leaves are changing and falling everywhere.  The wildlife was out as I saw several squirrels, a chipmunk, what I am pretty sure was a raccoon, and several deer.  This wasn’t a trail run, but the road was quiet with very little traffic.  I love the park and will probably do a lot more runs here before my marathon.

By the way, I want to mention that the amazing photo that I used for this post was taken by MoultrieCreek on June 20, 2008 at the park.  Her photo (in even more amazing clarity) is on her flickr.com site.  Thank you MoultrieCreek for sharing this photo through Creative Commons licensing.

Photo Credit: MoultrieCreek

Categories Training
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Short Run Today

Posted by Jim on November 4, 2011

BeekeepingJust a short run today, 2.3 miles.  I ran quite slow to recover from yesterday’s long run.  I ran the track at church, but the entire time I was thinking about how beautiful it was to run in the Chickamauga Battlefield Park yesterday.  I think I’m going to plan more park and trail runs.

Looking forward to having a day off tomorrow.  I’m attending a beekeeping seminar conducted by the Northwest Georgia Beekeeper’s Association.  It should be fun.  [Note: The beekeeping class was awesome!]

Photo Credit: sstrudeau

Categories Training
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Running with Deer

Posted by Jim on November 3, 2011

My wet glasses

This was my view for the nearly all of my 7.2 mile run today.  There was a light rain all afternoon, and yet I was still looking forward to my run.  I enjoy running in the rain as long as it’s not a down pour or too cold.  It was a pleasant 60F today.

I ran a loop through the Chickamauga Battlefield here in northwestern Georgia.  A major civil war battle was fought here, but now it is a beautiful park with nearly as many monuments as deer.  Speaking of deer, I saw nearly two dozen during my run.  I even took photos during one of my walking breaks and after I finished.  The photo below was taken after my run.

Chickamauga Battlefield deerSo far this is my favorite place to run.  There was little traffic for most of the route; just trees, deer and quiet.  I ran a really slow 14 minute a mile pace.  About 2 mile of the run was on the side of the road, which always slows me down some.  But I really don’t want to run hard during these long runs.  I kept between 60-75% of my heart rate reserve, which for me is 131-149 BPM.  To learn about heart rate reserve, Karvonen formula and heart rate zone training, check out this article from Purdue University.

Now the best thing about a long run day, I can eat a scrumptious meal and have no guilt.  When I got home from my run Shelley had made a veggie stir fry with vegan Tender Bits.  Yum!

Categories Training
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