Tag Archives: trail running

Running, Trail run, Training Log

March 16-22 Practice Running

Monday, March 16, 2015, 6:40 pm

5.45 mi, 415 ft gain, 1:03:44. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

Another day taking it sort of easy. I went out to look at the the seasonal ponds to see if the water had gone up at all, maybe a couple inches.

Then we went back out and down the newly cleared road opposite to the one I was just on. It was opened up, but not extended any farther than I’d been down before.

We stopped off at Olney Creek for a little bit before heading out to the hills. I wanted to go up a little, but not too much. I took one of the earlier spur roads looking for a good sunset view. I found a pretty good one.

I let go a little on the way down the hill. It was a pretty good run.

Average HR 124 bpm.

 

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 5:13 pm

8.11 mi, 278 ft gain, 59:40. May Creek Rd CW around town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I haven’t had much of a plan for my running lately. I don’t really like not knowing what I’m doing, but sometimes you have to play it by ear.

The foam roller hasn’t been working for the twinge in my hamstring or glute, so I took one of the dogs’ tennis balls and rolled around on it last night. I woke up this morning and my glute was sore. It loosened up a bit on today’s run, though, so I guess it’s working. I had trouble getting it to work on my hamstring. I couldn’t get enough pressure to go deep enough. I might have to get a proper massage.

Anyway, my legs felt ok today. My right shoulder is a little better too. My starting pace was a little better than it’s been recently. I went a little faster once warmed up as well. At first, I tried to keep my HR below 147, but I also wanted to make it 8 mi in under 1 hr. I kept pretty much the same effort until just past Reiter Rd, where the road starts to go downhill. It’s mostly flat or uphill until then.

I took advantage of the downhill to make up some time for the warmup and uphill. I ended up having to speed up more for the last 1.6 mi or so. There was a train going though the crossing for my street and I was going to be a little short of 8 mi, so I ran up Gunn rd a little bit. I didn’t have to go far before the end of the train was in sight. The train was going quite slow, however, as it was getting ready to stop in town for other trains to pass.

I still had to wait very briefly for the train to go by. It was still slowing down. Once it passed, I took off down the road. I was going to beat 1 hr, but now I wanted to make it the little bit extra home under 1 hr. I picked it up again for the last 0.25 mi and made it.

It was a good run. I almost felt like taking the dogs out for a short run, but I decided to give them a break again today. Vida seems to start limping seemingly out of nowhere when she gets up from lying down in the evening, especially from the floor. And Sigurd did something to his left rear leg earlier today jumping up at a tree with a squirrel in it. I didn’t see anything, so he must of just landed wrong, but he yelped and wouldn’t put any weight on it for about a minute. I got him to lie down, took a look and felt over his leg. I didn’t find anything. Then he got up and was moving around like nothing happened.

According to Strava, I had my second fastest 10k during today’s run at 45:00. I’ve never actually raced a 10k, so I don’t know of what I’m capable. Maybe I’ll add that to my goals next year.

Average HR 147 bpm.

 

Wednesday, March 18, 2015, 4:03 pm

7.57 mi, 969 ft gain, 1:36:19. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

Another stiff start today. The tennis ball doesn’t seemed to have worked. The tight spot in my right hamstring has been there for probably going on a year, now that I think about it. It wasn’t as bad until the last couple of months though, and it wasn’t a problem at all while running until then. I’ll keep stretching and try to get a massage soon.

It took almost 2 mi to warm up. By 3 mi the hamstring and glute had loosened up too, though they seem to be better going uphill than downhill.

Once I got out to the first clear cut, about 0.75 mi in, I took my shirt off. It was sunny and warm enough for me, probably only the low 60s. It was nice to get some sun. We went out to the little hill to start, then out to Olney creek and let the dogs play in the water. Then we went partway up the connector hill, taking the right a little before the switchback. I saw a garter snake back in the deep shade of the woods. I was just wondering when I’d see my first snake of Spring about 10 minutes earlier. I got a couple photos. It had a scar about where I’d consider it’s tail and body to meet.

After going up the short, steep hill out there and a short wander in the woods, we went out the road they cleared right at the switchback. It went a little ways out, but there wasn’t much interesting out there. Then we continued up the connector hill.

We went out to the little swampy area. There were tiny tadpoles swimming around, no larger than 1/4 in long nose to tail. They even appeared to have started growing hind legs. Then Vida decided to lie down in the water.

On the way back down the hill, I tried to get the dogs to go into some clear water to rinse off. They proceeded to go through the mud climbing out of the water. So I took them to another water hole just a little ways down the road I saw the snake on. There’s no mud around that hole, and it’s a bit deeper, so they got rinsed off fairly well.

Average HR 120 bpm.

 

Thursday, March 19, 2015, 5:26 pm

6.75 mi, 576 ft gain, 1:07:13. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

Not quite as stiff starting today. I’m getting tired of the hamstring and glute thing. Later in the run, I lengthened my stride a bit to stretch out and noticed that my strides seemed to be a little uneven. More stretching, a massage and maybe a sports DR or chiropractor if it doesn’t get better soon.

We went out to the two seasonal ponds. The water was up a little bit. Then we went out a little ways up the mountain, up to the intersection by the older rock pit.

On the way back I wanted to check out the roads going out into the clearcut down on the flat from last summer/fall. At the end of one of them, I kept going along the tracks left by one of the big tree cutting machines. It makes a decent trail. It went over to a second road in the clear cut. No such luck with tracks past the end of that one. I checked out one more short road after that, then continued around the loop to finish out.

The far corner of the loop has a little bit of a hill. Nearing the bottom of the other side going this direction, there’s often water in the ditch on the side of the road. Vida loves to jump into water. The mud at the bottom was just as deep as the water on top. I was hoping to make it back to the car without her getting filthy, which she loves to do. Fortunately, there are several more puddles on the way back, and I got her to go into one and mostly rinse off.

It was a pretty good run. I drizzled a little at times, which felt nice. I kept it pretty easy. My legs didn’t feel that great, though not bad either. I opened it up for a couple short bursts later in the run and didn’t have any problem with the speed.

Average HR 127 bpm.

 

Friday, March 20, 2015, 4:46 pm

11.31 mi, 2466 ft gain, 2:02:29. WFSP woody trail to upper falls (11), solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Legs felt a little better today than they have, and I felt better overall as well, not nearly as fatigued. I also didn’t have much hamstring or glute discomfort for nearly the entire run.

It was a little cloudy and looked like it was threatening to rain, so I went with my Baleaf long sleeve compression shirt and gloves. I rolled up the sleeves pretty quickly and took the gloves off shortly after that. The rain didn’t come until well after I got home.

The roads on the way to the park went ok. I had a bit of a hard time keeping an easy pace going up the trail. My HR was a bit higher than my breath rate would have suggested, but I guess that can be expected going uphill. I haven’t really paid that much attention to my HR on extended climbs, and I haven’t been using a HR monitor for that long, so I still have more to learn.

I spent a minute at the top, then ran up to the DNR road above. I went partway down the road to look at the new bridge. It looks done, but I didn’t get that close.

I made pretty good time on the way down. Apparently, it was my 2nd fastest time of the year, according to Strava. I didn’t really go that hard, but I haven’t done a hard effort down yet this year either.

The road on the way back home never goes as well as the way there. It wasn’t bad, though. I finished the last

Average HR 148 bpm.

 

Saturday, March 21, 2015, 3:43 pm

9.32 mi, 3832 ft gain, 1:58:26. Wallace Falls Double (12,13), solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

I felt pretty good today. I wanted to run at Wallace Falls, but I didn’t want to run the 3.2 mi there and back, so I drove. It wasn’t too busy. I even got a parking spot in the lot.

I took one handheld water bottle with a baggy of 5 dates in the pocket and my UD belt to hold my phone. I sort of tried to keep the effort under control, but didn’t really do that great of a job at it. At least I didn’t go hard. My breathing wasn’t that labored, but my HR was higher than I wanted. Oh well.

The trail was in good condition, and most of the other people were friendly. I made it to the upper falls in about 32 min, spent a couple minutes up there, and headed back down. I made the round trip in about 57-58 min. I got into my car and refilled my water bottle before heading off for round two at just over 1 hr.

I got some comments and looks on my second trip. I was about 1-1.5 min slower on the second trip. I spent about the same time at the top before heading down again. My second time going down was faster, and my fastest down time for 2015 according to Strava, just over 23 min. I finished the whole thing in just under 2 hrs, which was what I was shooting for.

I seem to have a pretty good sense time and pace. Maybe that’s why I didn’t try harder to go more slowly.

Average HR 155 bpm.

 

Sunday, March 22, 2015, 5:15 pm

7.04 mi, 811 ft gain, 1:37:29. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red #2.

I was more stiff than I expected from Saturday’s Wallace Falls double. I warmed up by about 2 mi. The rest of the run was pretty good. I still took it easy, though.

I had to make a couple pitstops, so I checked out a couple side roads just a little ways. One past the seasonal ponds and another on the other side of Olney Creek. I got some sunchokes on Saturday and had some with dinner. They don’t quite agree with me, lots of gas and stuff. I don’t remember having this trouble when I had them before. It’s unfortunate, because I really like them. Extended cold storage and very long cooking times supposedly help some.

Other than that, the rest of the run was good. I got in some decent uphill after that. It was too cloudy for a sunset view, and it started to rain just after I turned around at my high-point. It wasn’t too hard and didn’t last very long.

Average HR 115 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 55.6 mi, 9347 ft gain.

Races, Running, Trail run

Lord Hill 50k Race Report

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I’ve waited way too long to start writing this. The race was over 3 weeks ago. I prefer to write about races within a couple days, or a week max, so it’s still fresh in my mind. Anyway, here it goes.

Going into the race, I felt pretty good. I got my stuff all ready the night before. I took three handheld water bottles with dates in a baggie in each pocket. I planned to start with one and swap after each 10 mi lap. I divided the dates up accordingly. Then I was going to drop my bottle for the last 1.1 mi lap.

I got to the park about 50 min before start time. I checked in, used the restroom and went back to my car to stay warm and finish getting ready.

I started a little ways back to try to keep from jack-rabbiting out with the leaders. It worked alright. The first hill starts pretty quickly. I decided that I’d hike the steeper hills to save energy for later. There is about 1700ft gain each loop, and you go around three times. On the first moderately steep hill, my hiking pace was actually just as fast as most of those around me running.

Then came “Oh Lord Hill”, and it’s no joke. It’s not particularly long, but it’s very steep. The first time around wasn’t so bad.

I passed a couple people between the top of the hill and the first aid station. I think one of them was a 20 mi runner, though. At the first aid station I think I was around the top 10, and not too far back.

I pretty much ran alone for the next few miles, though the course has two way traffic in a few places, so I did see people. Then I caught up with a couple more runners on the downhills. It took years, but I finally started loving downhill running over the last year. I can usually make up some time.

I ran with Chris from 7 Hills Running, in Seattle, for the last mile or two of the first lap. We talked a little bit. We came into the start/finish a few minutes before the 5mi and 10 mi runners started. Chris kept going, while I went to my drop bag for a bottle switch, and to drop my hat. I finished the first lap in 1:30. I felt good and was on pace for my reach goal. I was kind of surprised.

The second lap went a lot like the first. I’m not sure I passed any other 50k runners. Going into the next aid station, I saw a few of the same lead guys that I saw the first time around. The aid station is at the end of a short out and back. This time I refilled my water bottle before continuing.

I still felt pretty good for the rest of the second lap. A few 10 mi runners started catching me. It was kind of nice to chat briefly with some of them.

I finished the second lap in 1:35, still well ahead of pace for my primary goal of 5 hours. The sun had come out, and it was supposedly going to warm up a bit. I was sweating in my gloves and long sleeve shirt, even with the sleeve rolled up. So I dropped my gloves and shirt, going shirtless for the third lap.

I still felt pretty good starting the third lap, until I hit the first hill. I didn’t quite bonk, but it wasn’t much better than that. I walked a lot more of the hills, and my running slowed significantly as well.

On the first lap, going up “Oh Lord Hill”, Paul M. Nelson (photographer of the above photo), made a comment something like, “come on, it’s not that steep, you can run it.” My response at the time was that I’d run it on the last lap. That was not happening.

I got to the aid station, refilled my water and asked about salt. They had none. I also drank two little dixie cups of water before heading back out. I don’t know that salt really would have helped anything anyway.

At about the marathon mark, another runner passed me moving pretty well. I was not. It was a very slight downhill. At least I was running instead of walking. I think he was the only 50k runner that passed me after the first lap. He ended up putting about 5 minutes on me by the finish.

I started having a little trouble eating around that point as well. I didn’t really have any GI distress, food just didn’t appeal to me much. I knew I had plenty of energy left from eating before and up to that point during the race to finish. But the little bit of boost shortly after eating might have been nice.

I continued to walk more of the hills and caught myself not starting to run once I got back to relatively flat ground a couple times. I still tried to keep up the pace on the downhills. I was a little slower than earlier, but not too bad.

I finished the third full lap in about 1:56, a big drop in time. I dropped my water bottle, and briefly considered putting my shirt back on before heading back out. It was only another 1.1 mi, and I just wanted to finish.

Leaving the start/finish area for a final time, I picked up the pace slightly. I still walked the couple steeper hills before short loop cuts back around right at the bottom of “Oh Lord Hill.”

I opened up again on the final hill heading into the finish. I think I got close to my early pace going down that hill. It wasn’t nearly as bad, because I knew the finish was so close.

There weren’t many people around the finish. The 5mi and 10 mi races had finished hours earlier, and many of the 20 mi racers had as well.

I sat by my drop bag for a little while, trying to gather myself. I put on my shirt and gloves, and drank some water. I spoke with a couple people briefly. I went to my car to drop off my gear, put on some more clothes and grab a banana. There wasn’t much of anything at the finish area that I could eat. I mistakenly got some electrolyte drink when I tried to get water. I tried a little, but ended up dumping it out.

I would have liked to stick around longer to see more finishers, but I needed some food and to get home to my dogs.

My finishing time was 5:16:31, good for 7th place. While it wasn’t as fast as I wanted, I’m happy with the result and how I did later in the race when I burnt out. I still have a lot to learn about how I should pace myself for these longer races. I did a great job pacing at Bridle Trails, but it had much less elevation gain and was a little shorter.

I saw the eventual winner come by the other way on one of the sections with two way traffic toward the end of my second lap while he was on his third lap. He ended up finishing in 4:17, only a couple minutes off the course record. Chris, who I ran with briefly on the first lap, finished second in 4:38, which was about a perfectly consistent pace from the first lap. He kept it up and I could not.

The biggest lesson I take away from this race is that I still need to build more base to be able to meet many of my long- and ultra-distance goals. I need to build the endurance to maintain the pace required over longer distances. And I need to work on pacing better early in long races. I looked back over my 2015 goals, though, and most of them are for distance and not speed. I do have 1mi and 5k speed goals for the year, but I got very close to them already. None of my other running goals for the year are about speed or time. I haven’t set a time-frame for my long- and ultra-distance time and speed goals yet, so I decided I wouldn’t worry about them until at least 2016.

 

Running, Trail run, Training Log

March 2-8 Practice Running

Monday, March 2, 2015, 5:16 pm

5.22 mi, 275 ft gain, 1:00:17. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

It was kind of rough starting out. My legs aren’t that sore from yesterday, but they were pretty stiff, especially my achilles. I really need to figure that out.

Anyway, I warmed up after about a mile. They’ve been doing some work on the logging roads, including opening a couple that have been very overgrown. I checked out some of what they’ve finished so far.

According to Strava I was not moving for about 12.5 min. But as I was heading back to the car, I saw that I could maybe come in under 1 hour on the clock, so I picked up the pace a bit for the last 0.4 mi. Then with about 0.2 mi to go, I sped up some more. Sigurd was running out in front of me and kept speeding up to stay in front. I kept going faster until just before the gate. I had him for a brief moment. My watch said I was going around 4:20/mi pace when I checked. I felt good, much less stiff but a little more sore when I was going fast.

I forgot to charge my Mio Link HR monitor, so I went without it today.

 

Tuesday, March 3, 2015, 5:03 pm

3.17 mi, 28 ft gain, 30:06. Around town, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

Kind of stiff and achilles attachments still sore. Legs weren’t really feeling that great. They finally started feeling ok around 2.5 mi. I finished strong. I let the dogs off leash a little early and tried to beat Sigurd home. Almost, but I don’t think he knew we were racing.

Average HR 116 bpm.

 

Wednesday, March 4, 2015, 5:04 pm

4.15 mi,  ft gain, 58:09. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#1.

Less stiff than yesterday. Achilles attachments still sore. I made another modification to my shoes. I don’t think it made much difference.

I ran out to Olney creek. My legs were mostly warmed up, but I really wasn’t feeling great. I hung out at the creek longer than I normally would. The dogs enjoyed splashing around.

When I started back the other way, I still wasn’t feeling it. I took a detour wandering into the woods for a while, just looking around and taking a couple photos. I probably spent 10 min or so wandering a bit. I felt a bit better once I got back to the road.

On my way back, I went up the hill to possibly catch the sunset. Just around the small bend at the beginning of the hill, I saw a good sized raptor flying overhead. I couldn’t tell what kind. A little farther up the hill, the dogs stopped and got all excited about something they saw on the side of the hill. I looked up to see a doe with a yearling. I pushed hard on the upper steep climb. I fixed the segment after last time, which did turn out to be a segment pr 1:28. I managed 1:20 today. I was rewarded with a great view of the sunset over the Olympics.

I went harder over the last 0.25 mi again. Sigurd kept pace no matter how fast I tried to go.

I definitely felt better by the end of the run.

Average HR 114 bpm.

 

Thursday, March 5, 2015, 4:47 pm

5.10 mi, 101 ft gain, 1:05:17. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm #4, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I suspect my achilles issue might be Haglund’s. I read about things other people have done yesterday. I massaged the painful areas quite a bit, which helped a lot. It actually helped almost immediately. I also started some stretching. I haven’t done much stretching in a long time, maybe a little bit when I had specific problems. I guess I figured I didn’t really need it. I also cut out some foam in my shoes that sits over the affected area. I only had a couple minor twinges during the run today, unlike the usual starting stiffness and gradually warming up.

Cars were parked at the first 3 gates, so I went to the bermed off road instead. I took one of the early turns that doesn’t go very far, but followed a very minimal trail out near the end. I’d call it halfway between a boot path and a game trail. It was pretty fun, but kind of slow going being pretty overgrown. Fortunately, it was mostly just salal and ferns. I turned back when I lost the trail.

From there I went out to the single track cutting through the clear cut. Lots of twists, turns, little logs and fun. I hooked up with the next road and then some more single track through the woods that leads to the closed grassy part of the road from gate 3. I went out until just past 3 mi and turned back.

I caught some nice views of Mt. Persis, Mt. Index and Baring mountain. Right around sunset, the alpenglow on Persis and Index was pretty amazing. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to an unobstructed view for a photo in time.

It was a great run.

Average HR 120 bpm.

 

Friday, March 6, 2015, 4:50 pm

8.09 mi, 271 ft gain, 1:12:27. Around town on May Creek Rd, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I was starting to feel pretty good and wanted a little longer, but still fairly easy test. So I decided take the loop around the outside of town. I started heading up US2, so I wouldn’t have to run on the shoulder later if I was still out after the sun went down.

I kept the pace fairly easy. I had a couple minor twinges, but overall, it went pretty well.

Average HR 131 bpm.

 

Saturday, March 7, 2015, 5:10 pm

7.28 mi, 1291 ft gain, 1:19:07. Olney Falls DNR rd, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

My achilles were still stiff when I woke up, like they have been for quite a while, though not nearly so bad. More massage and stretching today.

I headed out to the Olney Falls DNR rd. I checked out the falls, then went out the powerline access rd that I found a little while back. I followed it until I came to a private property sign and headed back. I still wasn’t done, so I went up the DNR rd some more.

My achilles were good today. My right hamstring is getting a little better too. It still just has a little tight spot that’s been there for over a month. I keep meaning to get a massage to have it worked on. I can’t seem to work it well enough with my foam roller.

It was a pretty good run. As much as I wanted to go long again this weekend, I’ll probably give it a while longer to let everything recover more fully.

Average HR 133 bpm.

 

Sunday, March 8, 2015, 6:47 pm

10.24 mi, 1674 ft gain, 1:56:12. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Less stiff waking up today than yesterday. The weather was beautiful as well.

I went the long way around the loop. The logging roads have finally dried out, so they’re not all sloppy muddy. I felt good, so I headed out to the road up the mountain toward Wallace Lake.

I turned onto a side road before making it through the clear-cut. They only left a few trees surrounding the stream down the hill. On the bright side, they cleared some roads that were very overgrown, so I have more areas to explore.

The frogs serenaded nearly my entire run, and horizon was lit up by the setting sun for well over an hour. With the low light obscuring the scarred mountainside, it made for one of those perfect moments, one that lasted much longer than most. One of those times that remind me how much I love running and being outside.

The turns that I took up the mountain took me to a landing just the other side of the ridge from Jay Lake. I plan to go back and find my way over to the lake another time.

I didn’t need a light until nearly an hour after sunset. I had my headlamp with me, but I ended up using my handheld flashlight instead for practice. It worked great. My only complaint is that the button can be hard to find wearing gloves. It’s on the side and not very prominent.

My legs seem to be mostly recovered from Lord Hill 50k and last weekend’s long run. The climbing wasn’t hard, and I still felt great at the end. I’ll still give it a little longer for my achilles and hamstring.

Average HR 131 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 43.3 mi, 4089 ft gain

Practice, Running, Trail run, Training Log

February 23 – March 1 Practice Running

Monday, February 23, 2015, 3:49 pm

4.15 mi, 160 ft gain, 50:34. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

It was rough starting out. My legs were sore and a little stiff. My left achilles is a bit sore too. I stopped and walked a little on the little hill at about 0.3 mi in. Walking wasn’t really much slower.

I warmed up by about the time I got to Olney Creek. The creek bed has changed a bit due to the flooding this winter. The log jam is gone, more logs moved in on the close side up on the bank, the sand bank in spots has raised about 3 feet and pushed into the brush a bit too.

I spent a few minutes at the creek letting the dogs run around. Then I headed out towards the connector hill. I turned around before getting to the bottom of the hill.

The weather was nice. The sun was out, and I ran shirtless for a while. It wasn’t that warm, but the sun still felt nice.

I was still sore and slow by the end of the run, but I felt a lot better.

Average HR 118 bpm.

 

Tuesday, February 24, 2015, 5:12 pm

4.54 mi, 38 ft gain, 39:59. In town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

The legs were a bit less sore today. My left achilles is still sore. It got a little worse about half mile in before it started feeling better again.
My pace was significantly better today than yesterday. I ran out about 20 minutes and turned around.

On the way back, some guy hanging out on his front porch cat-called me. Something about my legs. I’d guess that I get about 10 guys yelling things or cat-calling for every one woman.

I had a great run, anyway. Now I’m trying to figure out what race or solo adventure to do next.

Average HR 128 bpm.

 

Wednesday, February 25, 2015, 5:58 pm

5.3 mi, 380 ft gain, 56:39. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Again, I didn’t keep up with writing this up until days later, so I don’t remember a whole lot about it.

I went out past Olney creek to where the road meets back up with the loop. I wasn’t sure which way to go. I ended up turning around because the logging trucks made such a mucky mess of the road. Instead, I took the road out towards the hill. I went up the hill a little bit and thought about continuing, but I figured I’d keep it shorter to continue recovering from the race.

Average HR 122 bpm.

 

Thursday, February 26, 2015, 4:00 pm

8.16 mi, 1119 ft gain, 1:28:50. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #1, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

(Writing this days later as well).

I was going to go to the next gate, but there was a car out there. I felt pretty good. I kept the pace pretty easy, though.

I went over the hill and back. I let gravity take over a couple times on the downhills. I enjoy running downhill so much, it’s hard to believe I used to really hate it.

Average HR 123 bpm.

 

Friday, February 27, 2015, 4:14 pm

8.22 mi, 1264 ft gain, 1:28:50. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Lone Peak 1.5.

When I pulled up to the gate, I saw a truck coming out, just about to the gate. Before letting the dogs out, I got out and spoke to the guy briefly. I asked if they were going to be logging out there too. He said he was out there to clean up the roads, ditches and such. I got a little more info about where they’re working right now as well.

Feeling pretty good, but still kept an easy pace. I checked out one of the early side roads that’s been grown over for a couple years, and he cleaned up. It didn’t go very far. Then I went out to the little hill before heading over the connector hill.

I still kept it easy over and back, until I got back to the bottom of the steep part of the west side of the hill. Then I turned around and ran hard back up the steep part, about 0.15 mi and 150 ft gain. I setup a strava segment for that climb, but it didn’t calculate it correctly for this effort. It counted the bottom part when I was still going down and the turnaround as well. I guess I didn’t go quite far enough past the start of the segment to “zero out”. I’m pretty sure I did actually set a PR up it, though.

Average HR 130 bpm.

 

Saturday, February 28, 2015, 1:05 pm

11.04 mi, 2122 ft gain, 1:52:48. To Upper Wallace Falls (10) & back, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

Feeling good and mostly recovered. Still don’t have all my speed and strength back, but that’s ok. Training a little tired will be helpful experience for longer stuff.

The park was packed and the trails were quite busy. I pushed the pace in places, but I didn’t worry about stopping and slowing down for hikers. I think I yielded more than I usually do too.

According to strava, I had my third best time going up the woody trail to the upper falls. With all the stopping and still a little of the race left in my legs, I was a little surprised.

I took it easier on the way back down. The road back home was good.

I planned a longer run, but I thought I needed to be back home by 3pm for something, so I cut it short. It turned out that I didn’t need to be back until 5pm. Oh well.

Average HR 154 bpm.

 

Sunday, March 1, 2015, 2:01 pm

21.78 mi, 3454 ft gain, 4:05:36. To WFSP, RR grade, Greg Ball, Wallace Lake, Jay Lake, uphill turnoff, DNR rd to Woody Trail & down,solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red#1.

The plan was for at least 16 mi, and possibly as much as 24 mi or so. I kept the pace much easier than Saturday. I started easy on the roads to the park. I stopped briefly at the restrooms and headed up.

Just as I was getting started, I saw another runner on her way back to the TH. Both our faces lit up when we saw another runner. We exchanged waves and greetings as we passed.

I went up the RR grade to the Greg Ball trail, trying to stay below 150 bpm. It’s really easy for me to get excited and speed up in races, with hikers around and just going uphill in general.

Once I hit the DNR road at the end of the Greg Ball trail, instead of the more direct road to Wallace Lake, I took the road to the right, going uphill. It’s one of the few alternate routes to Wallace Lake that I hadn’t done yet. I liked it, some nice climbing and adds a little more distance to the trip.

Once to the lake, I kept going out to the beach on the north side and took a couple photos. Then I continued out to Jay lake. I saw some flagging tape continuing out past the food storage site, so I followed it. A very minimal path has been cut out a ways. I stopped when it ran into some blowdowns and couldn’t see any more tape.

I took the DNR rd toward the falls, but took a detour up the road I checked out a while back hoping to find a possible route up Mt. Stickney. Last time I stopped where part of the road was washed out. It was really wet and looked pretty unstable. This time it’s been dry and didn’t look like much had moved since then. I decided to go around it on the uphill side, where it looked like some other people had done the same. Either that or some good sized bear(s) with the size of the impressions in the small talus. I went up the road a ways further, up to about where my gps said was 2600 ft elevation. Looking at maps and satellite images, it looks very promising. I’m definitely going back sometime. I wanted to keep going but didn’t really want to run in the dark, even though I had my headlamp with me.

A little further down the DNR road towards the falls, I saw a critter scamper down the road ahead of me then head uphill. I stayed quiet until I got within sight. It was a bobcat, my first time seeing one in years of enjoying the outdoors. It stood there watching as I pulled out my phone and took a couple pictures. I stood and watched for a little longer. Just before I kept going, I waved my arms and made some noise to scare it off. Lots of people hike in the park, including with kids and small dogs. It’s better if it stays scared of people. It was an awesome experience.

I hit Upper Wallace Falls for the 11th time this year.

Even though the parking lot was packed and cars were parked down the road about 0.5 mi when I started, there weren’t many people left on the Woody trail on my way down.

Running the road home was kind of rough. Tired leg training was in full effect. I still finished the last 0.1 mi or so strong.

This will probably be my last long run in this pair of shoes. The Altra Superior is just about the perfect balance of ground feel and protection for me. But after over 600 mi on this pair, they’ve lost a lot of that protection. My feet were not happy for about the last 7 mi. I may still use them for short runs.

Average HR 134 bpm. This isn’t necessarily accurate. I forgot to charge my HR monitor. The battery died, and it missed the last 1.5 hours.

 

Weekly totals: 63.3 mi, 8536 ft gain.

February totals: 187.2 mi, 21420 ft gain.

Running, Trail run, Training Log

January 26-February 1 Practice Running

Monday, January 26, 2015, 2:51 pm

6.03 mi,  ft gain, 1:09:35. Kellogg Lake Tree Farm gate #2, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I felt surprisingly good today. The sunny 60 degree weather was great too. My right hamstring was a little sore starting out. I also started a little slow, but I warmed up after about 2 mi.

After the first mile, I got out into the open and the sunlight. It felt great, so I took off my shirt. The sun felt awesome.

I went over the hill from the west side today. There was too much logging traffic on the road at the other gate. Up on the hill, I could see exactly where they were logging. It’s not that far past where they set up signs.

Once I got to the other side of the hill, in the hills shadow, it got much cooler. It’s always cooler in that area.

I picked up the pace a little bit on the way back. I had to get back home to make it to the post office before it closed.

Average HR 126 bpm.

 

Tuesday, January 27, 2015, 5:08 pm

6.72 mi, 1096 ft gain, 1:12:26. Olney Falls DNR rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I felt a little sluggish starting out today. I stuck with a pretty easy pace for most of the run. I started feeling better about 2 mi in, but still kept it easy.

It was raining the whole time, not all that heavily, but just a constant light rain. I used my Outdoor Research Helium II jacket. It kept me fairly dry for about 40-45 min, but the front of my body was pretty wet by 1 hour. My forearms were quite wet as well. I think that’s from water draining back from my hands as my arms come forward above parallel to the ground. My back was still mostly dry, though. And I was still warm enough.

Vida kept up much better today, though still lagged behind a bit when I sped up on the last descent. I might give the dogs tomorrow off, or do a double with a longer solo run and a short one with them.

Early in the run, I wasn’t really feeling it and almost cut it short to 3-4 mi, but I’m glad I kept going. I kind of wish I went longer, but I think another “easy” day was a good idea. It feels really weird to call 6.7 mi with over 1000 ft gain easy.

Average HR 124 bpm.

 

Wednesday, January 28, 2015, 4:56 pm

2.09 mi, 36 ft gain, 18:29. Warmup for solo 5k, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I took it easy to warm up. My right hamstring was a little tight again, but loosened up. I probably went a little faster than ideal, but it was cold out and I wanted to get warm faster.

Average HR 119 bpm.

 

3.14 mi, 20 ft gain, 18:29. Solo 5k through town, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I started too fast, but I wanted to see what I could do. I set new PRs for 1 mi, 2 mi and 5k (1/2 mi and 1k too according to Strava).

My splits were 5:33 for mi 1, 5:50 for mi 2, 6:10 for mi 3 and 6:23/mi pace for the last 0.14 mi. I went hard from the start, wanting to see what kind of pace I could hold. I faded fairly consistently after the first mi. I just hung on to what I had over most of mi 3. I tried to finish hard over the last 0.3 mi or so, but I could feel my legs just about to burn out, so I backed off just a hair.

I’m really close to two of my goals for the year, sub 5:30 1 mi and sub 18:00 5k. My best estimated 1 mi time from Strava was 5:32. My 5k time was 18:12. Based on today, I know I can beat my 1 mi goal. I’m pretty sure I could do a sub 18:00 5k if I paced better. My 2 mi time was 11:22, which I also think I could do faster with better pacing. Even so, my 2 mi time today was nearly 3 minutes faster than I ever did in the Army. My best 2 mi for the APFT was 14:44, a couple weeks before my 21st birthday in 2002 while still in training. I hated running back then.

Average HR 147 bpm. I don’t think this is correct. The data shows my HR around 105 bpm for the first 1.25 mi, then suddenly jumping to the low 170s. It hit a high of 184 bpm near the end.

After I finished, I sat down on a curb by the elementary school to rest a little before heading home.

 

2.75 mi, 43 ft gain, 24:57. Cool down for solo 5k, solo. New Balance MR10v2.

I went pretty easy on my way home. I wanted at least 2 mi for a cool down, but heading straight home was going to end up around 1.4 mi, so I kept going up US2 to the next street and then ran back along that one to get home.

Average HR 136 bpm.

 

Thursday, January 29, 2015, 4:46 pm

7.10 mi, 1235 ft gain, 1:09:46. Olney Falls DNR rd, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Blue.

I might actually have been more sore today from yesterday’s 5k than I was the day after the first 20 mi of last weekend. But it’s a different kind of muscle soreness. I could still run pretty much like normal today. Soreness from a long run takes more out of me, even if it doesn’t hurt as much.

It took about 2 mi to warm up completely, but I still had some soreness in my legs. It was a good run anyway.

The orange of the sunset lasted from before I started until after I finished. I had some great views. I spent about 5 minutes at the turnaround spot.

Average HR 129 bpm.

 

Friday, January 30, 2015, 3:56 pm

16.01 mi, 2353 ft gain, 2:49:32. Upper Wallace Falls via Woody Trail to Wallace Lake & back via Greg Ball Trail, solo. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I decided to move up my long run by a day. I might do another B2B and go again tomorrow, but I was pretty tired today.

My legs were still a bit sore from Wednesday’s 5k. I guess I really went hard then. I don’t feel like my pace has suffered much from it, but I definitely feel it. I suppose running on tired legs is good practice for my first 100 miler, whichever I finally decide on. I still haven’t made up my mind whether to run Badger Mountain or wait for another one, maybe Lumberjack or Pigtails.

Even though my legs were sore, and I felt like I was running pretty slowly on the roads out to the trails, I was running in the low 8 min/mi range, which is fairly usual. I tried to take it easy up the climbs on the Woody trail, but caught myself going a little harder a couple times. Overall, it wasn’t too fast of a pace.

I was well ahead of sunset when I hit the Valley Overlook, and I didn’t want to wait around that long, so I kept going. I caught glimpses of the sunset through the trees, though. I had a nice view from the DNR rd above the Upper Falls. The horizon glowed orange for over an hour.

The DNR rd out to Wallace Lake was quite a bit drier today. The flooded section closer to the lake has receded, but where there was just one channel of the creek cutting across the road, there are now two. They’re easily jumped across, though.

Once I got to the picnic table by the bridge over the outlet of Wallace Lake, I got my headlamp out. While the sky was still glowing orange, it quickly got dark in the trees.

The road from Wallace Lake to the Greg Ball trail has dried out a lot as well. Though, I almost lost a shoe in the mud where a puddle had been.

Today was my first time running down the Greg Ball trail by headlamp. It was pretty fun. I missed switch backs, going a couple steps off trail, two or three times. When going downhill, I tend to keep my headlamp pointed down right in front of my feet, which means I don’t see the trail farther ahead very well.

My legs were pretty tired for about the last 1.5 mi, but I tried to maintain about the same pace. I did speed up for about .25 mi as I approached the turn for home, because it sounded like the train that was stopped was getting ready to get going, and I didn’t want to get stuck waiting at the RR crossing.

It was a little more tough of a run than either of last weekend’s 20 milers, mostly just because my legs were sore. Other than that, it was great.

Average HR 137 bpm.

 

Saturday, January 31, 2015, 3:48 pm

16.02 mi, 2437 ft gain, 2:56:24. Greg Ball to Wallace lake to upper falls & back via woody trail, with dogs. Altra Superior 1.5 Red.

I’m writing this a couple days later, so it’s not the freshest thing in my mind. I was rather sore and tired from the day before, so I kept a pretty easy pace again.

I warmed up after about 2 mi. Since I went up the Woody trail and down the Greg Ball on Friday, I decided to go the other direction. Even going easy, I just about set another Strava CR up the Greg Ball trail. If I hadn’t stopped to pee, I would have made it by a little bit.

The trail was kind of busy, much more so than the day before. That was another reason for switching directions. The road grade and Greg Ball trail are usually a lot less busy than the Woody trail.

I pulled out my headlamp at the picnic table at Wallace Lake again. I didn’t turn it on for a little while though. I took it easy on the way down the Woody trail too. I only passed one group of people still on the trail on my way down, three guys with cameras and flashlights. I’m glad they had lights. I’ve come across several people on the trail without lights after sunset.

Running the roads home was kind of rough. But that’s why I wanted to do back-to-back long runs. I wanted to do some training on tired legs. And that’s what I got. I was surprised at how well my legs held up to the b2b long runs the previous weekend. I guess an all out 5k and a second week in a row with b2b long runs did the trick.

I might take it easy for the most part until Lord Hill 50k on Feb 22. Or at least a few days before another long run this upcoming weekend after the 5 mi race for the final NW Trail Runs Winter Series.

Average HR 132 bpm.

 

Sunday, February 1, 2015, 2:09 pm

6.20 mi, 67 ft gain, 58:25. Green belt and RR access rd, with dogs. New Balance MR10v2.

My left achilles is stiff again. Sometime I’ll finally figure out what the deal is. Maybe I need to do more stretching. It seems like when I have this issue it tightens up more around 0.5 mi into my run, sometimes making me consider turning around and going home. Then it loosens up just a short time later.

I decided to go through the little park between US2 and the RR tracks for a while, then hopped the tracks to the access road by the river. I went out past the gate on the road that leads out to Startup.

A little ways down the road there’s sort of a marshy area to the right. As I came up to it I saw 7 great blue herons take flight. It was pretty awesome to see. I wish I could have gotten a photo.

I continued out a ways farther before turning around. As I got back to the marsh, I saw more herons. I guess the 7 I saw fly off went back. A couple flew just around some trees, a couple more flew up into a tree on the far end, and several just stayed where they were. I counted a total of 8 this time.

The rest of the run was pretty uneventful.

Average HR 124 bpm.

 

Weekly totals: 66.1 mi, 8315 ft gain