Friday, June 29, 2012

This is why I started taking photos while running...

I'm still a little hesitant to post these photos.  Some of what I saw yesterday really creeped me out.  These were taken less than a quarter of a mile from my front door:

Can't really make out what it is yet, but you can see a few objects in the grass.
Is that the shaved head to a doll?  Yes.  It is.
"She
was
Practice
+
RIP"
I didn't notice a second leg.
Or a second arm.
Took one last shot after I had passed the scattered doll parts.  You can see there was another  walker approaching the "scene."  I found comfort knowing that yesterday was a crowded day for this path.

I don't really know what to think about these photos.  I'm hoping it was just some kids being kids and playing a joke, but it was still pretty dark stuff.

Anyways stats for yesterday, and Wednesday:


Monday, June 25, 2012

Surprise long run and a jog down memory lane...

Before I start on today's run, I'll get the last few runs from the second part of last week out of the way:

Thursday:


Friday I was supposed to run, but didn't so I had to make up for it on Sunday (usually my rest day.)

Saturday:


And Sunday:

The exciting part about running on Sunday was that I made plans to spend most of the day at my parent's house, so I decided to run in their neighborhood.  I was living there for most of the training for my first marathon, so it was nice to run an old but familiar route.

Today was supposed to be an easy day.  I planned on running 7, but after 5 miles I was still feeling fantastic so I decided that I might as well get the long run for the week out of the way while the weather was nice and pleasant.  I ended up finishing 11 and I'm really happy that I made that call.  I finished about two hours ago and I feel much better now than I did after either of the recent 10 mile races that I did.  Success!  AND I got a few pictures today.  (I apologize for quality - I was using my iphone today since my garmin watch was dead, and skipped the digital camera.)

I saw a sweet bird in the lake behind Kingstown Center.
Yeah, poor quality, but I was stoked.
My best guess is that it was a great blue heron, but I'm no expert.

I also got to see not one, but TWO baby bunnies!  I couldn't get to my phone in time for the first but here is the second:

Too cute! 
Cotton-tail hopping away.

This happened to be on my favorite mile-long stretch.
It's a series of rolling hills along a paved path.  The path runs underneath these powerlines that create a convenient clearing with woods on either side.

(Like I said, I had to use my phone today since the garmin was dead.)


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

There are plenty of lessons to be learned from distance running. Today's lesson: Humility.

Hitting the wall, bonking, falling apart, running out of steam, shutting down -- call it whatever you want.  That was me today, right near the end of mile nine.
I spent the rest of the walk home kicking myself and trying to figure out which of the many factors could have been the culprit that kept me from finishing the eleven miles that I set out to run today...  

Could it have been the heat?  Two summers ago when I was training for my first marathon I was in Paraguay, enjoying the perfect running weather of the Paraguayan mild winter:


This heat, on the other hand, is brutal.

Could it have been the three big hills that I climbed in the first half of the run?  My total elevation for today was 600 ft:  
First climb, 100ft
(Taken from top of first peak)
Second climb, 150ft 
Turned around to take a pic from the top of the second peak.
The third hill (not pictured because of length/windy roads) stretched over a mile and climbed over 250ft.

Was it too much that I logged six miles yesterday?  Did I run them too fast? 


Or was it the chili-mac that I had a little too much of, a little too late, when we had guests last night?


Worth it.
It could have been any of these things, probably a combination of all of the above, but mostly I think I was just far too cocky on my way out the door this morning.  

This isn't the first time for me to bonk on a long run, and I'm sure it wont be the last.  I need to learn from my mistakes and accept that there will be days when I find myself two miles from home with nothing left, and that's okay.  I made it home safe.  I'm still injury-free (knock on wood.)  And I'll be ready to tackle whatever's on the calendar for tomorrow.  Most importantly, the geese were there to cheer me up shortly after I slowed to a walk:

Lots of them.
!!!!
There were even a couple mallards.

I even got to see a gosling, but by then my camera had died.

Anyways, stats for today:
(the map is a little wonky because I stopped my watch for the stretches where I walked.)


Monday, June 18, 2012

Good day for a run in the mist

I wish every day were like this.  It's much easier when I don't have to worry so much about getting dehydrated in the summer heat.  I didn't take my camera today, since it was a shorter run and sometimes I just feel like running naked!  Okay, not naked, but it's just more fun to run without a pack.  Pictures next time, I promise.

Stats for today:

(6 in under 50 minutes - a non-race personal best, hooray!)

Spotlight on a few favorite trails in the area...

After complaining about the smelly and generally unpleasant Kingstown Shopping center in my first post I was feeling guilty about being so negative.  This means so today I must take a moment to point out some of the greener paths and trails near my new home...

First is the trail that runs alongside Van Dorn right before it meets telegraph.  It starts off just behind the BP and cuts through the woods which is a nice shady alternative to the intense sun that beats down on the Van Dorn sidewalk.
There is however this blind corner, where I narrowly avoided a collision with another runner a week ago.
Soon after Van Dorn is this trail along Old Telegraph Rd.
It's beautiful and shady, but there is tons of poison ivy.  Eek!
Last, one of the reasons why I really do like Kingstown - they take good care of the trails around the residential areas like this one here.  It's a steep climb up this hill, but the view makes up for it. 


These were all taken on Friday so first Friday's stats:

And Saturday's:

That marks the end of my first week of scheduled training, and I'm happy to say it was a successful week.  On Saturday I hit the 300 mile mark for this year, and I managed to stick to the schedule (and actually ran an extra mile on Saturday by accident!)






Thursday, June 14, 2012

It's that time again.

As I'm sure we all know, I'm training for marathon numero dos.  The 37th annual Marine Corps Marathon to be exact.  Run for Burma will be sponsoring my run and my official training regimen started on Monday.  While out on that first run, I had a lot of time to think and got an idea to do some blogging again and keep people in the loop about my training as well as post some photos, since there are some really neat trails and wildlife in the area.  I didn't get around to finding my camera until today, so here we go...
Today's run was the shortest for the week, making it a little easy on me since I'm just getting used to carrying a camera around.
Most exciting about running in Kingstown I think is the wildlife.  There are plenty of wild flowers growing in the area, which to me is always pretty cool.  Any flower that can thrive like that without anyone tending to it is a beautiful thing in my book.


I also get to see these canadian geese on the daily.  Most of the time there are some of them hanging out on the trails with a few goslings, and they've gotten comfortable enough around people that they don't really get scared or try to fly off when I run right by them.  


Just past the lake is my least favorite part of the run.  Usually I try to avoid this part of the neighborhood like the plague, but unfortunately not every run can be a long run, so I had to take the shortcut home today through the dreaded Kingstown Center.  It's a good quarter mile to half mile stretch of strip malls and shopping centers.  It smells like exhaust and fryer grease.





Annnnd the stats.  Wouldn't want to forget those...