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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
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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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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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