Doug's Running Thingy

Headed over to UNF in Jacksonville for a campus tour with Travis and a friend.  Walked the campus for a couple hours and then I cut the boys loose with their longboards to explore a little more without me.  I slapped on some shorts and toured their on campus trails - ran/walked close to two miles of the 7 or so that they have there - nice little trail complex around a lake.  Travis seemed to really like the campus, but he was disappointed we couldn't meet the coach or watch the team practice.  Only the throwers and vaulters were at the track when we stopped by. 

Couple miles on the hotel treadmill before heading over to the UNF track for the first of two long days of action.  Got my sunscreen and hat and camera ready to roll.

First time back on the trails in a while.  Just did the Overstreet Loop nice and easy. Odd soreness in middle of both hamstrings - finally realized it was from 16 hours of sitting on bleachers at UNF this weekend watching the track meet.

Travis ran a decent 2:05 anchor leg of the 4X800 on Friday afternoon and followed up Saturday morning with a decent 10:11 3,200 in windy warm conditions.  He went 5 flat/5:11 which matches up nicely with his 5:09/5 flat effort last week... next time will be even splits 9:59!  Next up will be his first 1,600 of the season over in Jax again at Bolles High School on Friday evening. 

Slowly getting back into it.

Mostly walked with Lisa, but ran about a mile after we finished our walk in the woods at Tom Brown Park - beautiful evening in Tally.

Overstreet trail right at 8 min pace.  Foot clearly not fully clear of PF nonsense, but going to press on through and see how it does as I drop this next 2 lbs to get under 160 again.

Pseudo race report of the horsey adventure over 25 jumps across 2.6 miles.  Me and about 200 other curious runners/walkers/adventure race types toed the line this morning for a tour around the Red Hills Horse trials cross country jumping course.  The jumps ranged from 3 to 5 feet high and most were uniquely carved wooden structures topped with bushes.  There were two water jumps that horses could probably cruise through in 3-4 strides, but were actually about 20 meters of knee deep chilly muddy water - most of us lowly humans didn't fare too well on these.  After about the 4th jump, I was reduced to climbing/crawling over the majority of the jumps.  The jumps, mixed with the hilly terrain and the majorly chewed up surface (actual horses raced the course the day before!) made for a very challenging run.  I finished in the top 10, a bit over 22 minutes, and was perfectly satisfied with my effort.  Travis won the silly thing in 17:20.

Speaking of Travis... on Friday evening he successfully dropped into the low 4:30s for 1600 meters with a fine 4:32 - a 5 second PR.  He went out well in 66, then ran 68, 70, and finished with another 66.  Add in all the tenths, and thats 4:32.  We had talked about keeping his slowest lap at 68, and he said he actually thought he was flying and felt pretty good on that 3rd lap - oh well, he's getting there.  Here's the video of his race - he's in white over blue with 88 on his back.

Overstreet plus milky way back to the jeep.  Just loosening up the legs from acting like a horse on Sunday.

Nice evening run through the bridle trails in the neighborhood.  Had to stop and stretch the foot at about a half mile in, but then it was fine.

'nother run in the neighborhood on my cushy Dyads to keep rehabbing the foot - weight is dropping again, so that is what will help the most.

Three miles on the Tom Brown trails after walk/running two miles with Lisa - nice evening.

A bit over a mile of walk/runnin with Lisa and then 3.4 on the oyster shell trails at Miccosukee Greenway.

Mile warmup, 6X two minutes on (if you can call 6:45 pace "on"), one min off, then about a mile cooldown - all on the overstreet loop.  Second day into Spring and it was 85 degrees and 85 percent humid - sweet!

Really needed a few miles yesterday, but failed to get up early to do it and then never squeezed it in.  Gorgeous morning today on the trails tho - ran farther than I have in weeks.  Felt really good and even the foot was a non-issue.  Then, did 6 hours of cross training tidying up the garage and the yard - whew!

Made it out to Tom Brown hilly trails again this eve - pretty good run.  Then went to Sams Club and bought $300 worth of concessions supplies for tomorrow's big middle school meet at our track - expecting nearly 400 kids and anticipating a noon to 9PM event - joy joy!