Mountain Run

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Running better, Running faster

I’m out of town and can’t run.  I’m a little bummed about that.

Tuesday was my last run and it my running keeps getting better (finally).  I am sticking to my 5 mile route for now and the mountain on the weekend.  Tuesday, I went out slow at first.  As I got going, I started feeling better and stronger.

Here are the splits:

 

8:19 Pace

8:19 Pace

My legs felt strong.  My hip felt good overall.  It always seems to bug me a little more at the end of my runs, but not much.

So at an 8:19 overall pace, this was the best 5 miles I’ve run in my neighborhood in a long time.

So, is it the mountain running or the ACV (apple cider vinegar)?  Yes, I am still doing both.  Either way, I am getting good results and am excited about my race at the Country Music Half Marathon in April.  I do need to work on my long runs though.  I still stop at 8 miles after going up the mountain and back.  I would like to add more miles to that soon.  That should wear my legs out well.

Anyway, no running yesterday, but I hope to get home before dark so I can run today.

I hope you all are happy and running.  I also hope to get back reading blogs soon.

Tom

 

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33 miles of running last week

It was a good weekend for me.  It was bittersweet as I missed running the Mercedes half marathon this year.  It happened yesterday, but because of my hip injury, I wasn’t able to get my training started soon enough to participate.  I did think of all those runners as I was running up my mountain yesterday morning.  Funny, I didn’t see one runner in the entire State park.  Not one.  I guess they were all in Birmingham. I wish I was.

My run yesterday consisted of running up the mountain that I now call “my mountain”.  I figure since I conquered it 3 times now, I can call it mine.  I went by myself yesterday as TJ was wanting to run a long run and RS was sick.  RS did come with me to walk and take some pictures though.

The run itself was uneventful.  It is about 1.5 miles to the road that leads up the mountain.  Then a 2 mile climb (800 ft) and then I continued about a half mile so that I’d have 8 miles in by the time I got back to my car.

I really think this run is one of the best runs for getting me into shape.  It is like a hill run and speed workout all in one.  Also, once you run up and down and still have to run smaller hills for 1.5 miles, it really takes it out of you.

All in all I can feel the strength growing in my legs after each run.  I feel less sore today than I did the first two times and my hip has almost no pain.  I think I will keep this mountain run in my weekly runs for a bit.  Just to get some real endurance and strength built up.

As to the rest of my weekend…  Nothing much happened.  I had a good time with my family.  It was a beautiful afternoon yesterday so we cooked out at TJ’s and then called it a day.  Back to work now and back to my 5 mile runs (or 5.5 mile runs if I decided to add 10% again this week). Last week was a record week mileage wise for me since my marathon.  I managed 33 miles.  Not bad, but far off the 50 miles I used to run.  Time will allow me to get back there.

Have an awesome week.

Tom

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A strange, dog rolling, race runners, mountain run day

It was quite an adventure.

TJ and I went to the state park to run up the mountain that we ran up a few weeks ago.  

As we started running the road that leads to the mountain road, suddenly 200 runners were coming at us.  A race started the same time we started.  Being understanding of not getting in anyone’s way, we had to run off the road and down an embankment.  Finally we got to the end of the runners and continued on the road to get to the mountain.

Then something happened that I have never witnessed before…

We were running on the left side of the road facing traffic.  A car went past us on the right.  It wasn’t going too fast as the speed limit was only 25.  The back window was down and a small dog was looking out it.  Suddenly the dog jumped out the window.  I couldn’t believe it.  It landed on its legs and tumbled about 3 times, got up and walked to the side of the road to relieve itself.  I was in shock.  The car stopped and I went over to make sure it didn’t run away and the owner came over to get it.  He said, “she’s never done that before…”  The dog was fine, they got back in the car and kept going.  Very strange.

Finally, TJ and I got to the narrow road that goes up the mountain.  We did this once before so I knew what to expect.  It is a 2 mile, 800 foot climb that takes you to the top of the mountain.  Beautiful view, but hard to get there.  The nice thing about this run is that I don’t normally run hard enough to get my heart racing.  I mean, I was breathing as hard as I could.  We got near the top and I checked my pulse.  95.  Wow, I am pushing as hard as I possibly can and my pulse isn’t even over a 100.

So we got to the top and started back down.  On our way I asked TJ if he thought it would be harder to run up the mountain or to ride a bike up.  As we were starting to head back down we passed two guys pushing their bikes up and a runner passing them by.  I guess it is easier to run up the mountain.

All in all, it was an 8 mile run and we finished 3 minutes faster than last time.  We ran this run Saturday morning and I am still sore.  It is a good sore though.  I used muscles that I haven’t used in a long time.  Our finishing pace was 8:50 which is really good for me.

So it was a satisfying day and a strange, dog rolling, race runner day.

It was a good weekend overall.

Back to work.

Tom

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Running up a mountain

Top of the mountain

Top of the mountain

We ran… Up and up and up.  Where was this road going?

TJ and I decided to run at the state park.  We took a beginning route like @bigbiggeek and I ran the day before.  But as we got to the end of the road, we decided to take the narrow “road” to the left rather than turn around.

It was nice.  Running in the shadow of a mountain up and down and around.

But then the downs went away and it was just up.  We ran up one hill that immediately turned into another hill and then up another.  It went around curves and then continued upward.  I looked to my right and the small drop off became a steep fall.

We reached about 2.5 miles of running and so far this one “hill” was 1 mile long.  I had to stop and take a breath.  Then back to running up the hill.  1 mile up became 1.5 miles and then 2 miles.  I had never run up hill for two miles straight.  It became obvious that we weren’t running in the shadow of the mountain, we were running UP the mountain.

Finally the ups became more flat.  We were at 3.5 miles out and I wanted to get to 4 miles so that I would have an 8 mile day.

The picture above was one taken at the top.  We still had to run about a 10th of a mile to get in 4, so we continued on and then turned around to head back.

Cool trees

Cool trees

As we began to head back, I saw these cool trees overlooking Birmingham.  What a great view.

Heading back down the mountain

Heading back down the mountain

Finally we began our decent.  On our way up we saw no one.  No cars, no bikes and no runners.  On our way down we saw several cars going up and a few bikers heading up the mountain.  We flew down the road and around all the curves and to the bottom of the mountain in record time.  My legs felt like mile 20 of my marathon.  Shot.

We finally ended at the bottom of the mountain and got back on the road that would lead us to our car.  I hadn’t realized how many hills we ran down in the beginning of our journey.  So we had a mile and a half to go and it seem to be mostly uphill!  I told TJ, my legs were shot.  But then I thought of my marathon and that I needed to make my legs run, even with nothing left.  So we pushed on.  In fact that last mile we ran near my marathon pace.

Back to the main road

Back to the main road

Finally back to civilization.  TJ told me that we had just .5 miles to go.  I was never so happy to see the road and the park.

So I had a couple of unexpected firsts in the run yesterday with TJ.  First we ran up a mountain which I never thought I would do, but it was an amazing experience.  What a feeling of accomplishment for me to look out over the city while realizing I just ran 2 miles up hill.  Second, I got in 8 miles which is the most since my marathon last fall.  My hip wasn’t perfect, but it made it through and I feel fine today.

So the rest of the day was filled with football and burgers.

What a great day for a run.