02 October 2011

Discovery Park trail run

Finally, I got a reasonable quantity of sleep.

Since yesterday did not tire me out much I decided to try and get in a longer run today.

A couple of weeks ago I set a lofty running goal for this fall and I promptly injured myself at the 12 Hours of Capitol Punishment. Damn. And that was after I had to take almost two weeks off from running after falling at the Capitol Forest 100. It seems that for every two steps I took forward I was taking one back. On the upside two steps is more than one so I am making progress, just not nearly as fast as I would like to. What's new, right?

Discovery Park is awesome. There are so many trails, it's close to home and it's really scenic. You can do the classic Loop Trail for 2.8 miles or any combination of little loops. I did about the biggest loop you can short of going all the way down to the north parking lot and included the biggest climb in the park from the lighthouse all the way up to the bluff at the top of the South Beach Trail.

I started out pretty darn mellow as I was not sure how my ribs would tolerate the impact of running but they seemed to do okay. I could feel the impact but it did not hurt. Also my foot and shoulder and hand seem pretty good to go as far as sunning is concerned so bonus.

After finishing one loop in exactly 39 minutes I stopped at the parking lot to suck down a gel and toss it in the garbage. I was laughing at myself for noticing that eating the gel and disposing of the wrapper took 40 seconds. Athletes are nothing if not crazy about statistics!

My second lap did not feel any different until I got to the descent to the North Beach Trail. Here I started to take the stairs two at a time and to run over roots instead of stepping over them. I kept it steady along the North Beach Trail and then on the climb back up I took about half of the stairs two at a time whereas on the first lap I took them all one at a time. And finally with about .25 miles to go I tried to pick up the pace just a bit.

The result was a 36 minute lap so a negative split. And that included the time it took to eat the gel. :) Nice.

I saw loads of people twice as I looped the park. Everyone was very cordial and would wave back to me. Even the people walking their dogs would pull them out of the way for me to get by.

Back at the parking lot I spotted a trail map provided by the Friends of Discovery Park. Pretty cool. It's the only reason I now know the names of all the trails I ran on.

I drank 90% of my bottle while running today. Good thing I had it along obviously and I'm so glad these hand-held bottles don't bother me anymore.

My original running schedule had me doing at least 12 miles this weekend. We'll see how long I can go next weekend. If I can do 12 I would be stoked.

Sleep 6
Waking HR  
Body Weight  
Body Fat  
Breakfast 6:30 AM - 2 bananas, PowerBar
Lunch 10:30 AM - massive smoothie
Dinner  
Workout Food small bottle w/1 tablet Nuun, gel
Injuries  
Therapy  
Time of Day 8:20 AM
Workout Type  
Weather mid 50s, dry, partly cloudy, calm
Course  
Results  
Time 1:15:12
Distance 8.5-9 miles?
Pace 8:51 min/mile if I went 8.5 miles
Equipment Brooks Cascadia
Clothing shorts, short sleeve active T, long sleeve active T

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