overtaking haynes

almost took today off cause i just felt really tight in some toe joints and my hamstring and achilles felt off. i decided to go with my two younger brothers across the street to the woods i used to explore when i was a kid. We can now drive a mile into the woods cause of all the new fancy homes there which was nice today but sad so much has been ruined. We went to find this miniature stonehenge that used to be there about 10 years ago. It was no longer there. We then found this cool lookout rock. Mostly running but a little bit of hiking. 

 i then dropped the brothers off and went for another 5 mile trail run in the same woods but some other trails just to completely go back in time. the trails were ok but not the best in town like i used to think when i was younger cause they felt like my own. out there today for about 1hr 50 mins in all.
 

decided today was the perfect day to take off since it is 16C outside. Hopefully the big legs will be refreshed. will aim only for 55 miles this week.

Decided to try running at a local h.s. track. It's odd that i didn't even consider this until someone at work suggested this when i was telling him of my animal encounter stories. The track isn't lit but there are enough peripheral lights that it is fine. There is also a cluster of fields that you can do an outer loop of for about 0.6 miles when the track gets boring. There is even a road loop of about 0.75 miles within the school complex which can mix things up. 

 Ran 2 miles easy in under 16 min! that's a first in a long time. I even stretched...the track promotes good running behavior. I then ran around the track and the fields which were much darker than the track. I was about a minute over 8 min/mile pace after about mile 8 until i came back to the track and there was now this guy running fairly hard and i ran the opposite direction and we were kind of  deadlocked with pace both running in the outer lane. I started pushing it slightly to try and gain ground and this guy obviously did too. This went on for about 1.5 miles and i was not really gaining anything despite speeding up, but then the guy disappeared. It was good to finish in 1hr 19 minutes the 10 miles. My legs were really right so i stretched some more. did 4x100m striders and then stretched again.

Running around tracks and fields gives my little toe blisters though which is a large negative. Need new running shoes...i ordered them today.
 

lots of rain today. it let up during running time. ran 32 laps in lane 6. estimate it was 8.6 miles. got to wear shorts and a t-shirt it was in the mid 40's. there were deer around the track tonight. definitely am going to get some music next time or a book on tape. 

Ran for 1hr 11 min around the track and bethel h.s. fields and roads. I was disappointed that my mp3 player which i thought was working again no longer did. huge bummer expecting to be amused by a book on tape. didn't run more than a couple laps on the track-too boring. the fields were extremely wet but muddiness and wetness doesn't really matter when you can't see how gross it is. did 6x100 striders at the end. 

2hr 24 min trail run. Explored some uncharted territory but ultimately didn't quite figure out how to get from point A to point B. I liked how i saw no one on the trails after being growled at and chased numerous times by dogs at the popular park. The rugged terrain definitely hurt even though it was slow going. Some parts of the trail were flooded in ice water which wasn't ice enough not to break through. some some crows eating a deer carcass and saw a hunting perch on the new trail i was exploring. Hopefully tomorrow i can get a significant long run in. we shall see. i hope it's not as cold as it was today.