Kerry's Running Blog

Ran the extended Kohler's loop this morning (which consists of an extra section south to Deerfield Elementary and then along the canal and a loop around the pond in the middle of Highland Glen Park). Average pace was 8:17. No aches or pains to speak of. There were times when I felt a little extra energy and other times when I seemed to be dragging a bit. I stopped for a few seconds as I was nearing the Kohler's turn when I noticed three quarters in the road. When I run with my wife she always stops to pick up money, as it not only gives her a chance to rest, but  also because the coins add up over time. The last time I helped her count it out, she had well over a hundred dollars just from money she's collected on her runs.  

Explored a slightly different route this morning as I wanted to avoid running along the rutted and sometimes rocky canal road in the dark. After running south to Deerfield Elementary, I followed Harvey Blvd. west to 48th. Then followed the Kohler's Loop course except I didn't run around the pond. On the way back down 48th I kept going to the nursery and ran back east along Harvey and followed the trail back home. Almost exactly eight miles as it turned out. Laureen was just heading our for a five miler as I was walking up to the house. It was warm and humid morning with heavy cloudcover, so I was pretty hot and thirsty. Today the uphill sections just seemed to be a lot easier for some reason.

Extended Kohler's loop at 5:20 am. Warm with clear skies. I thought I'd skip the tempo run this morning as I'm still getting used to running eight miles every morning. I was tired starting out, but I just noticed how pretty it is in the morning just as it's getting light and how nice everything smells and I felt a bit more energized. I pushed the pace at times just for the fun of it, but for most of the run I was just lost in thought. During the last mile I could tell that I was a bit tired as my running form started getting sloppy. Picking up the pace seemed to help. My weight this morning was 153.2 which is where I've been stuck for a while. Prior to the SGM last year I got down to 146. I'm guessing that the pounds will start to come off again as I start to consistently hit 50+ miles per week.

Extended Kohler's loop on a warm, partly cloudy morning. I got to bed a little earlier last night so I was feeling more rested when I got up, but I felt the effects of having bumped up my mileage to eight a day as I was getting started. My legs were sore or anything, I just didn't have much spring in my step. After about four miles I started feeling more energized and felt strong finishing up. It might have been due to a little extra energy gained from swallowing some gnats in my run through the park.

In the past that might have grossed me out a little, but I've watched a few episodes of Man versus the Wild (or whatever it's called), where they drop this ex-special forces commando off in the middle of some wilderness area armed only with a knife. Over the course of several days, he finds food, water and shelter and makes his way out to civilization. He'll eat just about anything that will give him some energy and not make him sick, like live snakes and scorpions (after biting off the head and stinger), grubs, termites, ants and even squeezing drinking water out of elephant dung (I missed his explanation of how that could be safe). After watching some of the things he's done to survive, swallowing a few gnats doesn't seem too bad.  

As Laureen wanted to do her long run this morning and finish before it got too hot, she got up with me and ran with me for the first mile and a half or so. We stashed some water at a couple of points along the way. It was sure nice having her company starting out. It made it so much easier to get up and get going. She turned before reaching the high school and I kept heading north with the idea that I'd catch up with her somewhere along the way. Knowing that she was ahead of me and that I'd started out a lot slower than usual, I started pushing the pace right away. Giving her more than a mile of headstart meant that it was going to take a little while to catch her. It wasn't until I'd rounded the corner at Kohler's and was just about to the light on 48th that I caught her. We ran together again for a little while and then needing to get back, I pushed the pace the rest of the way home.

I was surprised after I left her to see so many other runners out. And even more surprised to see that they were all women. For a minute I thought there must be some kind of early morning race going on, but they didn't have any numbers on and were going in different directions and besides, who ever heard of race on a non-holiday Friday morning? It must have just been a weird coincidence as I hardly saw anyone else the rest of the way. Anyway, it was a nice morning and a slight break from the routine. I'm really hoping to get in 13 or so tomorrow, but we've got a couple of things going in the morning so I'll have to see how it works out.

Got up and ran the extended Kohler's loop around 5:20 am. Pushed the pace the last few miles and felt a bit ragged by the end. After taking my oldest daughter to help out at a fund raiser yard sale in Pleasant Grove (she needed to be there by 7:00), I came back and ran another three as I needed to get back to drop my youngest daughter off before the start of the Cedar Hills parade. I'd hoped to do more this morning, but I felt pretty tired by the time we got back home, so I just stretched out on the couch and took a nap (also knowing that we were going to be spending most of the hot afternoon painting the garage :)