Monday, April 26th to Saturday, May 1st

Month of April: 87.2 miles, 13 runs in 30 days, 6.7 miles/run
I ran 2 times, 9.6 miles.

Mon & Tue: Rest days. I thought about running on Tuesday but my aching knees and ankles told me differently.

Wed: Went down to Fleet Feet to buy new trail shoes. I ended up buying a pair of size 12.5 Salomon XT Wings 2. Sweet!

Thu: 5.45 miles, Ellison Park Wetlands, 60F, sunny, calm, some walking up hills, no pain.

Ellison Park Wetlands - White trail

I tried out my new pair of Salomon XT Wings 2 with the Fleet Feet crew out at Ellison Park wetlands. We went out the white trail and back. Nice!

Fri: 4.15 miles, 33:01, 7:56 pace, FF Happy Hour run, 74F, sunny, calm, 1 traffic stop, no pain.

Garmin Connect Activity for Fleet Feet Happy Hour run - reverse

We did the run in reverse in honor of Becky, the cupcake girl, leaving for PA. A sweet run made a bit harder by the reverse and the heat! I signed up for my first trail marathon, the Sehgahunda on May 29th. It will definitely be a severe test of my body.

Sat: Rest day. A long, lazy day. I went to out to Newark to see my sons. My youngest needed my help trying to get his wireless working. Alas, my PCMCIA card wireless won't fit in his PC Express slot. He needs to buy an USB wireless dongle unless he can get his internal wireless card to work. The oldest was ensconced in his room with allergies.

I went down to Medved to pick up my packet for the Medved Madness 15 mile trail run tomorrow morning. I am locked and loaded!

Keeping active, Doug

Flower City Half Marathon, April 25th

Sun: 13.1 miles, 1:46:43, 8:09 pace, Flower City Half Marathon, 51F, cloudy, light sprinkles at the start, overcast, stops at the water stops and a couple hills, some right quad pain after mile 10.

I ran pretty well. My Garmin would not turn on before the race so I ran 'naked' without pace info. Sometimes I think I run faster when I don't wear my Garmin. The first 5 miles were uneventful. I bonked a bit out at 6 miles going up the hill into Highland Park. I picked up a gel but couldn't take it until mile 8 going into the Mt. Hope Cemetery. The miles in the cemetery included about 100 yards of cobblestone, then some up and down, twists and turns by many mausoleums. By mile 10, we were just about out of the cemetery. I had some right quad pain and just gutted out the 5K to the finish. The people yelling at the end were tonic to my legs as I sprinted across the finish line!

Flower City Half Marathon course

All in all, I ran very well, a PR by 4 minutes! My previous PR was the Cat's Half out in the rolling hills of Mendon way back in April 2007. I finished 278th out of 1290, overall results here. I finished 21th out of 75 in my age group, age group results here.

CJ took my chip off the finish and took some pics of me. She worked very hard at the finish taking chips off runners from both the 5K and half marathon.

Crossing the finish line
The bling!
The cool walk to the car!

Keeping active, Doug

Sunday, April 18th to Saturday, April 24th

I ran 4 times, 21.9 miles.

Sun: 6.2 miles, 50:40, 8:11 pace, Seneca-Titus-Winona-St Paul out to Cooper-Ridge run, 42F, sunny, a bit windy, no stops, no pain.

Garmin Connect Activity for Seneca-Titus-Winona-St Paul out to Cooper-Ridge run

I got out around 10:15AM for a sweet training run for the Flower City Half. A bit shorter than the run on Friday night. I am starting to get excited! A link to the course is here, today's Democrat and Chronicle article is here.

Mon: 2.57 miles, 49:47, 19:20 pace, Seneca up to Titus walk, 58F, sunny, calm, ns, np.

Garmin Connect Activity for Seneca up to Titus walk

CJ and I went out for a nice Monday evening walk before a nice supper of fish, rice, corn and salad.

Tue: 6.9 miles, 55:08, 7:59 pace, FF Cobbs Hill run, 60F, sunny, calm, no stops, no pain.

Garmin Connect Activity for FF Cobbs Hill run, 3 Ys, back on Highland

A very sweet run! I ran a little hard, concentrated on my running form, and did 3 Ys in under 8:00 pace! CJ walked her first complete Y, 4.5 miles, 16:40 pace! Yahoo! She's a keeper!

Wed: 4.55 miles, 43:09, 9:29 pace, FF Dirt Cheap #1, 65F, sunny, calm, walking on some hills, no pain until afterward.

Dirt Cheap #1 was held in the Devil's Bathtub of Mendon Ponds. We found gnarly roots and mud. I did OK but I must have pulled a groin muscle coming up the steps because it hurts. CJ and everyone is advising RICE, ibuprofen and bed. It got cool after the sun started going down.

I placed 73rd out of 206, overall results here. I placed 6th out of 18 in my age group, results here. Overall, a pretty good first trail run of the year. By the end, I was just in a tired zone of running, one foot in front of the other, just trying to keep up with the person in front of me, thinking that the trail would never end. Yet I knew it would end because I could hear Ellen on the PA urging us on at the finish. Thanks also to Boots for urging me to "dig to the finish". I surely wasn't going to walk into the finish. We surely needed the urging due to the uphill finish on the Devil's Bathtub stairs.

Thu: Rest day. CJ and I had a nice supper of rotisserie chicken, rice, peas and salad.

Fri: 4.2 miles, 32:20, 7:42 pace, FF Happy Hour run, 58F, sunny, calm, 1 tiny stop, no pain.

Garmin Connect Activity for FF Happy Hour run

I really tried to run easy ... yeah, right! I did start out easy but kept on going faster. My splits were: 7:41, 8:05, 7:56, 7:15, last 0.2 in 6:45. I was flying down Monroe Ave barely keeping pace with another guy who must have heard my footsteps. CJ walked the 3 mile loop. Afterward, CJ and I had our post-run usual pasta dinner and salad.

Sat: Rest day. CJ and I went out to Newark to get my haircut and get my father's mail, then off to Lyons to see my father at the Wayne County Nursing Home and his new single room. While I was getting my haircut at Mason's Barber Shop CJ was getting a French Manicure nailtips at Ellas Nail Salon & Spa. Her nails look great! She cured my headache when we got back up to Rochester. Early to bed, long day tomorrow at the Flower City Half Marathon.

Saturday's YNN article, link here.

Keeping active, Doug

Sunday, April 11th to Saturday, April 17th

I ran 2 times, 15.9 miles.

Sun: CJ arrived around 10AM via Amtrak from Cleveland. She liked the train. She saw a wild turkey and several deer from the window on the way. She ate off real plates in the dining car. I picked her up at the train station downtown which is only 10 minutes from our apartment.

After a nice reunion I took my daughter back down to Houghton College. She only has 3 more weeks of class and will be quite busy.

Mon: Rest day.

CJ did a walking exploration of the area around our apartment. She opened an account at ESL and found a place that will do her nails. We watched Black Snake Moan ... mmmm!

Tue: 7.2 miles, 59:16, 8:14 pace, FF Cobbs Hill run, 55F, sunny, calm, no stops, no pain.

Garmin Connect Activity for FF Cobbs Hill run, 4 Y's

I ran kind of hard, did not 3, but 4 Y's tonight. CJ walked 1 Y. A pleasant night for a run. We had the usual pasta dinner after a run. Sweet!!

Wed: Rest day.

CJ fixed pot roast, mashed potatoes and green beans. Dessert was cherry pie. An excellent supper and night.

Thu: Rest day. Today I had the last dentist appointment at Q Dental that I can afford this year. I have had 2 root canals down on #10 and #11 over the past month or so. I have blown through my dental benefits for 2010. Everything is done except for the crowns. I guess I will have to wait until 2011.

Fri: 8.7 miles, 70:15, 8:04 pace, Seneca-Titus-Winona-St Paul out to Thendara and back-Ridge run, 56F, cloudy, real light mist to start, 1 stop, no pain.

Garmin Connect Activity for Seneca-Titus-Winona-St Paul out to Thendara and back-Ridge run

A simply awesome run!! It has to rank as the best long run that I have run since the Summerfest 12K last Labor Day. I ran the first 4.2 out in 32:40, 7:47 pace, walked and hydrated for 50 sec, then ran 4.5 miles back in 36:45, 8:10 pace. I was definitely in the zone! The Flower City Half is next week ... yea, baby!!!

Sat: Rest day! CJ and I cocooned for most of the day, 5 for 7. We made it out to BJ's, where we scoped out the vastness of the BJ's in Greece. Afterward, we went to Red Lobster for a late bite to eat. The only glitch was that her ATM cards were declined ... but they were both perfectly accepted at the credit union across the street! Then we watched The Golden Compass before we retired for the evening.

Sunday, April 4th to Saturday, April 10th

I ran 4 times for 26.9 miles.

Sun: Still out in Cleveland with CJ. We went to Easter Mass at St Stanislaus Church in the Slavic Village, then out to see her father, brother, his wife, his kids and her kids in Revenna. I was back in Rochester by 10:45 PM. A long day.

Mon: 6.3 miles, 49:50, 7:55 pace, Seneca-Titus-Winona-St Paul-Ridge run, 66F, sunny, calm, 1 stop, no pain.

Garmin Connect for Seneca-Titus-Winona-St Paul-Ridge run

I had a choice between doing laundry or going for a run ... it wasn't really a choice. I got out around 6:30PM. A tale of two runs: a tempo 5K at 23:12, 7:29 pace, I walked and hydrated for a minute, then an ordinary 5K at 24:36, 8:30 pace. A very sweet run!

Tue: 6.3 miles, 52:59, 8:24 pace, FF Cobbs Hill run, 62F, cloudy, humid, 4 stops, no pain.

Garmin Connect Activity for FF Cobb's Hill run, 2.5 Y's, back on Highland

A warm front came through just before I went down to Fleet Feet. It was warmer and humid. There was actually a bit of really light fog up on Cobb's Hill ... or maybe it was just my sunglasses were fogging over. I did 2.5 Y's and took Highland back. I was drenched in sweat when I got done. I stopped to hydrate 4 times. I am still trying to get used to the warmer temperatures. Still a sweet run!

Wed: Rest day.

A workout at work, 16 flights of stairs and lots of walking. After work I did 3 loads of laundry: whites, darks, sheets and towels.

Thu: Rest day.

I went to work early so I could go to a dentist appointment. The dentist was running a hour late so I rescheduled for next week, same time.

Fri: 4.2 miles, 33:15, 7:55 pace, FF Happy Hour run, 36F, cool, windy, light snow pellets at times, 1 stop, 1 stop for traffic, no pain.

Garmin Connect Activity for FF Happy Hour run

The weather took a turn for late winter over the two days. But I made it down to Fleet Feet for the Friday night Happy Hour run. Why? Because it's what I do on Friday nights at 6PM. I had to dig out my cold weather gear that I had put in a box. What was I thinking? It's still early April in upstate NY. I guess the couple of days in the 80s went to my head.

I signed up for the Flower City Half in two weeks. I think I will throw in some long runs the next two weekends. A long run down to Lake Ontario and back sounds like a good idea!

Sat: 10.1 miles, 89:11, 8:49 pace, Seneca-Collingwood-Zoo Trail out to Rourke bridge-St Paul-Ridge run, 46F, sunny, a bit windy, 1 stop for 2 GUs, 2 stops for water, no pain.

Garmin Connect Activity for Seneca-Collingwood-Zoo Trail out to Rourke bridge-St Paul-Ridge run

I got out around noon for a nice long run on the zoo trail out to the Rourke bridge. I was able to dial in an economic pace, get into the zone and just cruise. I think I would have been a bit faster on the road but still a sweet long run.

CJ will be back from Cleveland via Amtrak at 9:50AM tomorrow morning. A sweet reunion will most definitely occur!

Keeping active, Doug