Sunday, 10/30/11: 6.45 miles, 59:21, 9:12 pace, 52F, sunny, calm, no stops, no pain.
Garmin Connect Activity for Mendon Ponds Park - Blue and Green trail loop
I never get up too early on Sunday mornings. I made it out to Mendon Ponds Park around 1:30PM. I met up there with Bill Beyerbach. We ran out on the now familar Blue and Green trail with a loop out to the East Lodge. There were a lot of horseback riders on the trail. We passed a group of three and a group of four several times. I do feel a lot safer when I see horses coming towards me instead of catching them from behind. I am feeling more confident about running 20K in the Mendon Trail runs next Saturday. Bill suggested that I treat the first 10K loop as a warm up and then start picking off runners on the second 10K loop. Maybe, maybe not.
It is truly unbelievable ... the Buffalo Bills are 5-2 after running over the hapless Washington Redskins 23-0, link here.
Monday, 10/31/11: Rest day.
I ran 19 times in 31 days during October, 112.6 miles, 5.9 miles/run. 5 out of 10 months > 100 miles!
Up to the end of October 2011, 153 times in 303 days, 945.1 miles, 6.2 miles/run
I wanted to get our laundry done ... but we never seemed to want to leave the apartment. So we did a couple of loads down in the basement. My dress clothes and our tech running wear are clean at least! We watched a DVR'd episode of Greys Anatomy before hitting the hay.
Tuesday, 11/1/11: 5.7 miles, 48F, dusk, no pain.
Christine and I headed down to Fleet Feet for the usual Cobbs Hill run. I ran up with Bill Beyerbach nice and easy, 1.65 miles. Our plan was to run loop repeats of 3/4 mile on the reservoir road. I tried to use the lap function on my Garmin which was unsuccessful so all the info is from Bill's Garmin. The first loop was 6:36 pace, the second loop was 6:38 pace. We didn't take any water so I was parched. I had to take the third loop easy, 7:20 pace. The 1.8 mile run back to the store was nice and easy at first, then a bit harder. Next time I will just reset my Garmin for each loop, no worries. Christine's legs bothered her so she ran up to the corner of Monroe Ave and Highland Ave and back, about 2 miles.
We watched Primetime On Demand episodes of NCIS, NCIS LA and Castle before hitting the hay. I guess we like crime dramas!
Wednesday, 11/2/11: Rest day.
I convinced Christine to go out to her "No-Bo" workout at Genesee Valley Park without me. I stayed home to do the dishes and clean the bathroom. She came back all glowing about her workout: 1 minute walk, 6 minutes run times 6. She said she did every run except one in the middle and picked off runners in the last one. I am so proud of her!
We watched more Primetime On Demand: 3 episodes of NCIS: LA to get caught up before going to bed. 45 minutes per episode with only one commercial per break versus 60 minutes with tons of commercials certainly was nice!
Thursday, 11/3/11: 6.3 miles, 49:48, 7:54 pace, 50F, dusk, a bit windy, no stops, no pain.
Garmin Connect Activity for Out to Cooper Rd
Christine and I headed in different directions for our runs. She headed out to Planet Fitness for a treadmill. I headed out onto the roads of Irondequoit. I did just your ordinary run: 6.3 miles. The first 5K was 24:28, 7:54 pace. The next 3.2 miles was 25:20, 7:55 pace. I did concentrate on my form, stretching out. pushing off with my ankles and trying to pump my arms (which I ordinarily don't do). My heart rate was interesting, it spiked right away up to 160 with a max of 171 which is normal for me. Then after 10 minutes it leveled off to around 140 for the rest of the way ... I didn't decrease my effort or speed. Maybe concentrating on form led to more efficient and less strenuous running ... hmm! I did find out that my old and reliable (up to now) Princeton Fuel headlight would not stay on unless I held the on/off button down ... oh well! I really could have used it once it got dark, eek!
Christine made an old family recipe for supper called potato chip casserole. Mmm, it was good! Then we settled down to watch DVR'd episodes of The Mentalist, Pan Am and Hawaii Five-O.
Friday, 11/4/11: Rest day.
I stopped by Fleet Feet to pick up my race number for tomorrow's Mendon Trail Run. I also purchased a Black Diamond Cosmo 55 lumen headlight to replace my faulty Princeton Fuel headlight. We watched DVR'd episodes of Castle and Greys Anatomy after a pizza supper.
Saturday, 11/5/11: 12.4 miles, 1:55:25, 9:18 pace, 27-40F, sunny, calm, no pain.
I took Christine out to her "No-Bo" workout out in Webster. She ran the 2.5 mile Turkey Trot course in 48 minutes. She was quite happy and very glad to be out on such a beautiful morning. Then she caught a ride with a No-Bo mentor down to Mendon Ponds Park to meet back up with me and her car which I had driven down there.
The start ...
I made it down to Mendon Ponds Park around 9:15AM for the start of the 5K, 10K and 20K Mendon Trail Runs at 9:30AM. The 50K run had already started at 8AM. I was surprised that the course was backwards ... I had practiced for the past month but in the opposite direction so all the ups were now down and all the downs were now ups. The start was frosty and very sunny. I struck out a fast trail pace as I settled into the pack of runners. I still managed to not stop on loop 1 as I had planned. I slapped hands with Bill Beyerbach as I finished loop 1 in 54:44, 8:50 pace. I didn't see Christine, I later learned that she was making a run to Wegmans for the race organizers. I quickly changed my heavy gloves for a lighter pair, took a slug of water and headed back out for loop 2. Wilt Alston passed me around mile 8, then I passed and exchanged pleasantries with shirtless (of course) Tom Butler who was in his loop 3 of 5. I did trip but managed not to fall a couple of times so I knew I was getting tired. I focused on my footing the rest of the way and did walk a couple of hills. I looked at my Garmin at about a mile to go, 1:46. I knew the course was relatively flat until the end so I just put it in gear and knew that sub 2 hour finish was mine. I managed a loop 2 of 1:00:41, 9:47 pace, for a total time of 1:55:25, 9:18 pace. I last ran this 20K way back in 2006 with a time of 2:12:55. I felt pretty good afterward with some minor stiffness.
Loop 1
Loop 2 (my light gloves are a different color)
All in all, what a beautiful and frosty morning for a race! I did OK. I was 32nd out of 69, results here. I was 8th out of 13 in my M50-59 age group, results here.
Wilt Alston, cruising in about 2 minutes ahead of me ... 5th in my age group.
Gritting my teeth for the finish line ... like usual!
Shirtless Tom Butler ... cruising in after 5 loops of 10k!
3 ultra ladies with "What you think, you become" T shirts
We stopped by Starbucks on the way home so we could relax, have a couple of skinny vanilla lattes and warm up my hands. We lounged around for a long while as we uploaded our Garmins and updated our status to Facebook. Since we had a Groupon deal that begged to be used, we headed out to the Crab Shack. I had lobster and Christine had fish fry. The manager gave us a free dessert so we shared chocolate cake ... Mmm! Then we enriched the local economy at BJ's, Walgreens and Wegmans before calling it a day. For some reason, we were kind of tired. I should have went to bed early like Christine did but instead stayed up and puttered around. All in all, a pretty enjoyable Saturday!
