Saturday, January 22, 2011

Day 52 - Yes! Snow!

My wife woke me up around 5 a.m. and said do you want to shovel? I really don’t have a choice but it was nice of her to ask. After an hour of shoveling the the driveway was clear. I walked inside to the smell of coffee – gotta love that. Now hopefully it doesn’t drift shut by the time I get home. After getting to work I spent another hour or more playing in the snow (shoveling/salting). Today I definitely got a good core workout.

Today on my walk it was windy and sunny. There was also plenty of soft snow to slip on every step.  Some of the roads are starting to drift which made it fun when a car would drive by. 

View from my walk
I made it out on the mountain by 4. A little colder today and the weekend is suppose to be real cold. The weather is saying down to 0 - wow that is cold. The road was drove on by a truck so it was a little easier to run until I got on the AT. From there I had first tracks to the top. The snow was real lite and fluffy. It would be great skiing snow. I only had about an hour to run so I ran down the road hill which was a lot of fun. There is probably 6 inches of snow on it and you could run down it real fast without worry about slipping on ice. When I made it to the parking lot I could see that there was going to be and awesome sunset. I ran down to take a pic and my battery was dead. There is always next time.



  
The road up from the parking lot

Appalachian Trail near Pulpit Rock
 
The view from Pulpit Rock
 
Appalachian Trail near Pulpit Rock
Appalachian Trail near Pulpit Rock



1-21-2011 - 3.4 miles - 45:51 - walk
1-21-2011 - 5 miles - 1:05 - run

Friday, January 21, 2011

Day 51 - Maybe another storm

Looks like some more snow on the way. Hopefully we get a good amount of it this time. Some people are really ready for warmer weather and I can understand why – they don’t run in it and they don’t know what they are missing:) Right now I am all for the snow because it will make me stronger for when the spring comes around. This weekend I will try to drain my tank of energy with plenty of running and sledding in the snow.

On my walk today I was trying to focus on every step. There are so many things to distract you outside. But today I was really zoned in. Yeah it’s only a walk but the more practice the better off I will be when race time comes around. It is so easy to slow down and get in a different pace whether it is running, hiking or walking. Every step counts and I really have to stay focused on what the end result will be. The race will be here in no time!

I decided to have a shorter night of running. I went straight up the road hill to Pulpit Rock breaking through the thin layer of ice. More footprints going to the top tonight which made for a lot of icy prints. Now you have to be careful with the ice footprints. Some are deep and you can twist your ankle on them real quick. I thought maybe there would be a quick appearance of the moon tonight before the snow started but no such luck. I made it to the top right before dark. I got a couple of pics and then headed back down. The tread on my sneakers worked perfect for the run down on the ice covered road. I headed right home and with only a little of over 3 miles in I thought I would run on the treadmill for something different. I'm not a fan of dreadmill but I thought it would be good mental training. My first mile I ran at a 10% grade at 5mph for 1 mile and the last .8 at a 10% grade at 6mph. That was all I could handle. I really have a hard time running with the same surface. I need some rocks, dirt or snow under my feet. It also felt really soft when I would land and I wasn't real crazy about that. Maybe I will shoot for 2 miles next time.








1-20-2011 - 3 miles - 37:31 - walk
1-20-2011 - 3.2 miles - 37:00 - run

                   1.8 miles - 20.00 - treadmill run:(

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Day 50 - Keep moving forward

Today for a walk I did my 3 mile loop. My energy level feels really good this week. The days I had my cold I was going out but the energy was not there. Today I was just trying to keep focused and moving along as fast as I could. It felt like a heat wave at 37°. I finished the loop in 37:39. That is a12:36 pace for the 3 mile loop and the legs felt good.

Tonight I left the house a little after 6 for a road run. With the chance of some more snow on Friday I thought I better get a faster run in tonight. How fast I will be running I never know until I get out on the road for a mile or two to see how I feel. I have a hard time following a schedule because some days I feel like running fast and others I don’t have much energy. I found out going by feel in my training works the best for me. So on the days I have the energy I take advantage of it. I changed from my normal loop and was trying to run a lot of different streets around town I never run on in a while. Half way through the run I had a big dog jump at me. It’s been a while since that happened but I was ready for it. I even made eye contact with the owner and the dog, slowed down and thought it was cool to keep moving. I didn’t say a word and kept moving forward after he jumped at me. Then the owner starts to yell and yank the dog around. I think if the dog would have been on a leash this could have been avoided. Finishing my run with an average pace of 7:38 for the 10 miles. I feel I am getting stronger little by little. Can't wait for the weekend and it's only Wednesday. The temps look cold but with some new snow on top of the slush the conditions should be great!


Since I didn't get any photo's today I thought I would post two of my favorite pictures I snapped a couple of years ago. The one I call it "Nature's Highway" because it looks like a crazy road in nature. The other one is just a cool colored insect but i'm not sure what it is. Just remember keep moving forward and enjoy the views around you!




1-19-2011 - 3 miles - 37:49 - walk
1-19-2011 - 10 miles - 1:16:21 - run



Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Day 49 - Ice run

I woke up around 2:30 a.m. to the sound of sleet against my windows. Looking out the windows I could see through, most of them were coated in ice, I was hoping for more snow by that time but only an inch or two that I could see. No shoveling before I left for work today. I thought it would be better to leave the ice on top of the snow so I wouldn't have to deal with a sheet of ice after the freezing rain started when I got home. I left about 25 minutes early thinking the roads were going to be a sheet of ice and it was going to take me a lot longer to get there. It turned out that the roads were not that bad at the time I left.

I hit the mountain around 3:30 after shoveling some of my driveway this afternoon. It was great to be running during the week in the light. Not a one person was on the trail today. I'm not sure if that ever happened before this late in the day. A lot of people take their dogs up to walk them I guess not today. There was a little coating of ice on top of the snow at the start but nothing to slippery. By this time the temps were above freezing and all you heard was the ice falling off of the trees. I ran right up to the red trail to work on my running and video making. I really enjoy making/sharing the videos because not everyone can make it out to see what it looks like after a storm. After running down that trail I knew my feet were going to be soaked and cold the rest of the run. The closer I got to the top the temps started to drop and the ice on top was getting thinker. There was a lot more ice that was still on the trees at the top and some fog. If you were never at the top of the mountain after an ice storm you don’t know what you are missing. It is a total different world up there. After getting some pics at Pulpit I ran the AT to the red trail and down the blue snapping some pics on the way . That is where my feet were really starting to feel the cold. I sat down to wring the water out of one of my socks on the foot that was very cold. It does help if you know your not going to be stepping in any more water for awhile. Finally I see two more sets of footprints as I was finishing the last half mile. I was glad someone else got to check what was left of the little ice storm. The sky started to break and the sun and moon were peeking through. What a cool ending to a run.


1-18-2011 - 8 miles - 1:45 - run






































Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Day 48 - Monday Monday

No sun and a little bit of wind made for one of the coldest walking days of the year so far. Today my walk was cut short which I didn't care because I got to see my two little ones on my walk and it made the day go by real quick. It is amazing what a boost that can give you the rest of the day.

The legs felt sore today. I think it was from running in the snow over the weekend. It does take some time getting use to running in the snow. The feet/legs are always landing and slipping a different way. My legs did feel better after my walk and should be good to go after work.

My run tonight started around 6. Taking off at a nice pace I hit the first mile around a 7:30 pace. For the rest of the run I was trying to stay right around an 8 min. pace just by feel. I try only looking at my watch when it beeps every mile so I can learn to run that pace by feel. As of right now an 8 min. pace on the road around here feels very comfortable for 8 to 10 miles with not feeling like I am going too fast. I can’t do that every day but a couple times a week feels good.

It looks like some icy weather for tomorrow and should be interesting to see what happens. Below are a couple of pics from some cool ice runs I had a few years ago. Hopefully I can get some more shots of some ice after this storm.



Schuylkill River/Little Schuylkill run together in Port Clinton

Appalachian Trail on the Buzzard Course
Top of mountain on Buzzard Course

1-17-2011 - 2.4 miles - 33:55 - walk
1-17-2011 - 10 miles - 1:19:37 - run

Sunday, January 16, 2011

Day 47 - Port Clinton Fire Tower

I got a text last night from my friend Dan asking if I ever thought about running up the road to the Port Clinton fire tower. I responded yes and it is a 5k up to the top. Not thinking he was serious about running it, but he was, that is where we ran today. He picked me up around 1 p.m. and we were on our way. I was planning on using this hill as a training hill but I never made it over to run on it. The hill climbs up for the first 1.4 miles then levels off the rest of the way to the fire tower. The road was plowed but at some spots the snow was a little tricky running through. After making it up to the fire tower we ran on on a nice trail that was a public snowmobile trail. That went down for over a mile until we hit the road. From there it is a quarter mile of black top to the trail.  The next trail runs along the Little Schuylkill River up to the Rat Trail. The Rat Trail runs along the middle of the mountain and was all flat single track. Once we were off of the Rat Trail we only had .30 mile back down to the car. The sun was out the whole run and no wind. Another great day with a friend on the trail.


Above is a pic at the start of the run
Port Clinton - Weiser Forest entrance
Port Clinton Fire Tower - Built in 1923

Crazy Trees



Little Schuylkill River

Trail along the Little Schuylkill River 


Dan running down the road to the finish
1-16-2011 - 10.30 miles - 2:01 - run