Day 92: Logan Run

Logan's Run was a '70's science fiction movie. Debbie and I were visiting the Ohio Hocking Hills area, and we stayed (and I ran) in Logan, Ohio. Today's run was about ten miles near and along Lake Logan. Since traffic was nearly non-existent, and since the temperature was comfortable (there was a bit of rain), this was a pleasant run. It's always good to run someplace new. Especially someplace scenic.

Along with today's hiking, I'll get over 400 miles in again this month. I should complete my run back across Tennessee in about a week.

Day 91: Cutting Corners

I cut tangents. Moreso when Garmin isn't working (more on this in a future post). So today I ran a standard 10-mile course, and did it fairly fast. But I did cut some corners.

Day 90: Farmtrek

Heritage Farm is close by. It's owned by the City of Brunswick. Some years, they lease it to farmers, who grow soybeans or cut the grass for hay. Other times, like now, it's just grass. I've run there, but I can never get going very fast. One problem is the ruts, and another is my inherently poor trail running ability. When I do make such an attempt, it's usually more of a walk-run type trek.

Today, it was such a trek. Not a good run at all, but at least I moved for almost two hours, and it was a soft surface. Added bonus: I was able to stop to pick blackberries in several spots.

Day 89: A Bad Millennium

Some of this appeared in a 2011 post. It seems appropriate to bring it back up today.

Word has it that legendary sea explorer Jacques Cousteau and his crew discovered a sunken ship from ancient Greece. Among the artifacts brought up was a bottle of wine. Cousteau opened the bottle and took a good swig. He immediately spat it out, exclaiming with Gallic aplomb, "That was a bad century!"

Another story: some years ago, a radio announcer said this about the Chicago Cubs (who had been doing poorly): "Any team can have a bad century... but now they're having another one."

I mention these things again because I do appear to be having not just a bad day (it didn't go well .. again), a bad week (last week was decent, but unfortunately, this week, not so much), a bad month (it's July: the heat and everything else slows me down), a bad year (I'll blame the coronavirus and GVRAT), but a bad millennium. Keen observers will note that I skipped 'century'. Sorry. 

Maybe I should just give up and wait till the next millennium rolls around.

Day 88: Another Hinckley Run

It wasn't easy to do after yesterday's long run, but I did manage to get out of bed and run the hilly nine-mile Hinckley run with friends today. That about did it for me. Except of course for the lake loop we walked afterward.

Day 87: Back to the Towpath

Been a while. It used to happen nearly every Saturday: a long run on the Towpath. But due to the pandemic and a bunch of other reasons, I've been staying closer to home. Today though, Larry Orwin and I ran nice and long down there.

'Down there' is down near the Cuyahoga River in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It's a wonderful place, and the towpath makes it perfect for running there. We were lucky to have a beautiful summer morning for our run.

We ran a bit over 20 miles. I was tired toward the end, but I'll call it a good long run. It was good all around.

Day 85: Today's Ten

Keen observers of my posts will recall that I have some bad days, running-wise. They often occur after a day or two of pretty good running. This week has been mostly pretty good, so you might think that I was due for a stinker.

It didn't happen. I wound up running my ten-miler with Michelle and Andy Wolff, and it went quite well. I now only hope that Saturday and Sunday do as well. Those are days that I often run longer miles, and/or run with friends. We will see.

Day 84: A Quick Word About Pace

I don't usually talk specifics about pace. That's because, on the one hand, I'm aware that no matter how slow I go, some people are slower. Thus, I shouldn't lament too much about my own slowness. On the other hand, I truly am slow compared to many friends, and also compared to my past old self. I find it best to just discuss my slowness in general terms, keeping specifics out of the conversation. Permit me to break with that self-imposed minor restriction for a moment. At least for today's run.

I'm struggling to maintain a ten-thirtyish per mile pace. My time at four miles is between 42 and 43 minutes. It would be really nice to finish this ten-mile run under 1:40, or under ten-minute pace. Ten-minute pace used to be much easier, and I used to complete the majority of my runs that fast. Those days aren't even all that long ago.

Things were going better for a while earlier this year. But then GVRAT, with its higher mileage and streaking, happened. I'm now including walking miles, but even considering running only, I've been pretty darn slow. Now, I can do some runs with an overall pace under ten, but they're rarer and rarer.

I do a sub-ten minute mile. Then another and another. And so on, until mile nine. Now I determine that I've got to run faster than 8:30 for my final mile in order to beat 1:40. It's downhill, but I've still got to haul a$$.

And somehow, I do. Negative splits are always good, and it's always good to finish with a blistering pace.

Day 83: Buckets of Sweat

My True treadmill is a real wonder. It's about 18 years old and it's endured not only thousands of hard miles, but also buckets upon buckets of my sweat. Someday, I need to figure out its total mileage. Eleven today; it was raining outside.

Day 82: Share the Love

Most of my running is solitary these days. I do better and enjoy it more when I run with others, but that's not usually in the cards for me, especially in these Covid-19 Pandemic times. So when long-time-but-not-so-much-lately-training-partner Michelle Wolff asked if I wanted to join her for a Tuesday track training trot, I jumped at the chance.

Her goal was to do three miles at AT but close to tempo pace, then another mile at a faster pace. Amid the rain, beautiful sunrise, and pink rainbow, we did all that. I then went on to run three more 800s.

So I suppose you could say there was a little bit of everything today: rain, sunrise, rainbow, tempo (ish), and various interval lengths. All (or at least most) whilst sharing the joy and misery of the track.

Day 81: Not Zero

I am up early. Have my coffee. Sit around and play games and mess around on the web. Time passes...

Whoa. Too much time passed. Now I do not have time for much of a run. I could quite easily talk myself out of running altogether. Doing nothing would end my 120+ day streak.

Some day that streak will, in fact, end. But today is not that day. I step on the mill and crank out five miles.                                                                                                                                         

Day 80: Like Last Week. Sorta

Last Sunday, I managed to get my long run in and amongst the hills of Hinckley. The plan was for more of the same this time around. In fact, things were going swimmingly. Until they weren't.

Running partners Dennis Amstutz and Theresa Wright are waiting for me at the turn from Ledge Road onto Kellogg Road. Up until a couple miles ago, things had gone extremely well. Like last week, I'd managed to start early and get three lake loops in before beginning this niner. But the wall hit me very quickly, and I'd watched those two easily move up (up Effie) and away. Now, I'm shuffling, and not doing well even at that.

"You didn't have to wait," I say, "I know the way." Theresa just chuckles and smirks. But then Dennis does something that makes a huge difference for me. He hands me a Gu brand gel. After a minute or so, I'm back to the pace I'd been at, and I'm keeping up with my intrepid partners once again.

It turns out to be a pretty good day, despite the heat, despite the early start, and despite that (temporary) crash.

Day 79: New Trail

Trail Dog Dan here. I discovered a new (to me) trail at Plum Creek County Park. It goes for ~2 miles off the red trail. It was shaded, but there were pretty fields and woods all around. Even so, there were plenty of opportunities to trip or twist an ankle. With this new out-and-back portion, there are 5-6 miles of trails there. I will go more often.

Of course, this happened on a hike with Debbie. I'd already got my run in for the day.

Day 78: Cause and Effect *you've got it again

"Don't sleep on your back. It's causing you to snore and sneeze and become stuffed up." I answer, groggily, something to the effect that she had the cause and effect wrong. I was sleeping on my back because I was sneezing and stuffed up, not the other way around. I leave the room where it happened to try to fall back asleep in the living room. This doesn't work either. I do some Zicam, get some coffee, and eventually, make my way outside for my run.

I only wish I knew the original cause. It seems an awful lot like a cold. I do know that stuffy nose and sneezing are not Covid-19 symptoms, so that's not a concern. This same thing happened two weeks ago. (Dan: I've got these head cold symptoms. Doc: Ever have this before? Dan: Yes, two weeks ago. Doc: You've got it again.)

The run begins predictably poorly. I can only manage three miles outside, so I get on the mill for seven more. This part goes surprisingly well. I even get down to tempo run pace.

Now I'm not so stuffy anymore.

Day 77: 1,000 Miles

Yesterday's question was, 'why run?' Today, I got my answer. The rising sun was behind some clouds, causing a bright silver lining and rays of pink and orange splaying out in all directions. The pinky-orangeness spread all over the sky, and a rainbow appeared toward the southwest. That is why I run.

Besides today's colorful sunrise, it was a pretty good run. Until it wasn't. Although I had started okay, and then even managed a decent pace for part of the run, the general soreness and fatigue caught up with me, and it caused me to slow down. Beginning around mile nine, I slowed a little at first, and then a lot over the final three of the fourteen miles. I guess you ould call it a mediocre run at best. And speaking of mediocre, I spotted a sign at an insurance agency that I read as. 'Mediocre Agent Available.' I actually ran back to read it again, only to learn that it was 'Medicare', not 'Mediocre'.

Today's Notable Achievement: Drum roll, please. Wait for it. Okay, here it is: Unofficially, I've run 999.4 miles since GVRAT began 77 days ago. Debbie and I are about to walk a couple more, so that will take me over a thousand, for sure. I say unofficial because today's running won't be recorded in GVRAT until tomorrow. I'm fairly certain that I've never run 1,000 miles in so short a timespan before. I've still got two-hundred some to go before getting back across Tennessee.

Running and walking for GVRAT through 7/16/2020, but not including today's walk

Day 76: Why Run?

Running is stupid. Why do I do it?

I wouldn't, but for GVRAT. Those thoughts and others like them were bouncing around in my head today, as I only got a few extremely slow slog-miles in.

The good news? Tomorrow's another day.

Day 75: Sustainability

That's always the question, isn't it? Is it sustainable?

It's the question foremost on my mind as I begin this, and most other, interval workouts. Today I do my first of ten 800 meter repeats in 3:49. Will I be able to keep the rest under 3:50 as well?

The answer (good news) is, yes, I can. At least on this day. I average 3:43 and my last two were the fastest.

Although this worked well for me today, I need to hit the track more often.

This brings me to today's other thought. Something that happened a long time ago.

Cashier: "That will be one thirty-five."
Customer (who has done one too many 400m repeats): hands over a dollar and waits for his change.

Now. If I could only get back to doing 400 meters in 1:35.