0-dark-thirty

"O-dark-thirty" is a phrase that I heard a while back that typically is used in context of very early morning... The Twinsburg High School Band was on Fox 8 news this morning, meaning that Gina had to be at school at 4:45am! I decided to take advantage of this and started my run this morning at 5am. 10 miles of trails, in the dark, watching the eyes(deer) watching me, listening to the owls call out to each other, and trying not to trip too much on the roots!

It was a great run! I had a mild bout of stomach upset from the cup of tea I drank but a Tums quickly calmed that down. I felt good running and it was nice and quiet in the woods. I attached my smaller headlamp to my waist belt and the extra contrast helped me miss most of the roots. A single headlamp, on your head, will usually wash-out the roots due to lack-of-contrast from the line-of-sight and line-of-illumination being the same. Having another light at a different angle helps to illuminate obstacles better. I just have to pick up my feet enough to avoid them...

Another crazy weekend in store for us. Cross-country meet, football game, basement painting, etc. It will be busy but fun. The leaves are really starting to drop from the trees and

It is dark out!

I will try to recap the past week or so since I have been blog-slacking a bit.... Last friday I used my last vacation day and ran a lap of the Run With Scissors course. I managed to run the correct course! and also managed to shave approx 30 minutes of time off too! I will not run the race at that pace but my estimate of sub-10 hours seems realistic, depending upon the weather/trail conditions. A nice 10 mile follow-up run Sunday went very well and I was able to hold a great pace throughout.

I have been running in the mornings before work and this means that my headlamp is required. My pace is a lot slower in the dark, but I don't have to worry about crowded trails either! An interesting encounter this morning occurred as I exited the woods onto the bike path. There was an elderly couple standing on the bike path looking back towards me. Of course, I turn to look behind me to see what they were looking at! The gentleman stated "That is what we saw in the woods!" They were looking at me! They had seen my headlamp as I ran along the ridge and could not figure out what it was. We had a short walk/talk together and I turned off into the woods again to complete my 8 miles.

Life just keeps getting crazier and crazier this fall. School activities for the girls, home projects, work, etc. are all adding up to make training very challenging. Denise and I are becoming more creative than usual in an attempt to get the miles in. Fortunately, there are only a few short weeks left before Columbus(Denise) and Run With Scissors(me). This is both good and bad: Good because we can take a break, bad because we never feel like we have trained enough!

This is where experience comes to play: Trust the training, have a plan, and be prepared to adjust/adapt when things don't go as planned! Because rarely does a race, or life, go as planned...

Kamikaze groundhog

I am still out here, just not blogging much. The family schedule this fall is crazier than expected, leaving little spare time...

A funny story from yesterday's run: I was running in the Center Valley Park in Twinsburg for a fast 6 miles (fast for me anyways) and as I rounded a corner of the trail, a groundhog was running full-speed straight at me! It took a moment or two for me to realize that indeed, this stupid critter was running at me! I started my attempts at stopping/slowing down/changing direction to avoid this thing when suddenly he darted into his burrow at the edge of the trail, just 3 feet from me! I guess that he thought it better to run to safety toward the threat than away from it... Anyways, I had a good chuckle from this and I am guessing that the groundhog was feeling pretty good about himself also.

I am taking my last vacation day this friday and am going to run one lap of the "Run With Scissors" course again. I should throw on a few extra miles at the end for 30, but we'll see how I feel. I love this fall weather and will try to take advantage of it as long as I can.

"Run with Scissors" Training run...

Yesterday was the first familiarization run for the "Run with Scissors" double marathon. This is the 3rd year for the race and it will be held October 25th. Twenty-four runners met in the Ledges Shelter parking lot where Roy passed out route descriptions and explained the course a bit for us. Shortly after 8am, we started running.

The morning was nice and cool, more like late september rather than the end of August, but I was not complaining. A short road section to Kendall Lake and then the trails begin. We stopped at Pine Hollow for a refill of water and then off to the Wetmore trails! I have only run on the western part of this area and the route covered the eastern section. Very nice trails and the mud was not too bad. Roy would periodically run ahead and do his best Scarecrow imitation to help show us where to turn.

Before long, we arrived at the Hunt Farm visitor's center on Bolanz road. This is the 9.9 mile mark of the loop and started the 5.5 mile slog on the towpath to Boston Store. Most people love the towpath for its even surface and flat terrain. Exactly the reasons that most trail runners dislike the towpath. Denise and I had just recently run 20 miles down here and it was all too familiar to me. However, the miles passed quickly as our group headed north towards Boston Store. I left the lock 29 area before the group and ran with Roy for a bit to Boston. That guy can move!

Back to the trails at Boston Store. I left Boston Store with Dave and we headed to Pine Lane on the Buckeye Trail. Once again, the conversations help the miles to pass quickly and as we entered the pine root section, there was Roy pointing the way for us! We left him at Boston Store, how did he get here so fast? Dave and I had a nice pace going and arrived at Pine Lane to be greeted by, you guessed it, Roy again!!! This time he had food! Some pretzel sticks and chips-ahoy cookies really hit the spot! Thanks Roy!

By now, Dave and I were wondering where Roy was going to show up next and made our way towards the Salt Run trail. Here is where I misunderstood Roy's directions and we ran on the road from the Golf course to the trail-head instead of taking the Bridle trail and back-tracking a bit to the trail-head. This shortened our day a little, but neither Dave nor I complained.

We headed back towards the Ledges after a quick stop at Kendall Shelter. Brandon caught up with us along this section and the three of us caught up with Suzanne and Sharon as they were climbing up to the Overlook. A nice run across the field to the parking lot ended lap #1. (26 miles) Race day will see us running this loop again... Oh yeah, Roy met us here too!

It was a great day: The trails were fantastic (as usual), the rain held off, and lots of good conversations! Just a bit over 5 hours elapsed time, 4:48 running time.

Just think, that was only 1/2 way...

Just about as good as it gets...

Nice 4.5 mile run this morning in the cool fall-like conditions. However, the woods were very dark and there were lots of 'strange' noises! Some deer eyes were reflected by my headlamp along with a raccoon in a tree. There was something else off in the distance that I could not recognize and I just kept running, with an elevated heart rate!!!

I had a great run sunday afternoon with JP to close out a 45 mile week! I am looking forward to a lap of the "Run With Scissors" course this weekend. I am feeling good and the miles are ramping up well. I just want to keep it that way!

"BOOMING" on the towpath

I took friday as a vacation day from work and went with Denise down to the towpath for a run. Her training for the Columbus Marathon had her doing 18 miles this weekend and she decided that 20 was better. Humid start to the morning and we started heading north from Boston Store towards Station Road. The towpath was empty and quiet and peaceful and before we knew it, Station road was here. Quick break to refill water bottles and we start the return trip back to Boston Store.

A few more people had started to venture out and the sun was trying to poke through the clouds. I was hoping that it would stay cloudy to keep the temperatures down a bit, but the humidity was more than making up for it.

Stopped at Boston Store to refill water and kept going south. The plan was to turn around at Bolanz Road to make the 20 mile distance. There are several sweet corn fields along the towpath and the farmer has placed noise-makers in them to keep the birds/deer at bay. These sound like shot-guns going off randomly and needless to say, kept Denise on her toes!

We turned around at Bolanz and started back. We knew that this last 5 miles would where the real training would occur for today. Once again, we were running past the corn fields when all of a sudden BOOM! one of those guns went off right next to us! I jumped, the two guys on bikes that we approaching us jumped, and Denise let out a scream! We kind-of chuckled a bit after this and I asked Denise if she wanted to walk a bit to settle her nerves. She stated that she did not want to waste the adrenaline and to keep running!

Once back to Boston Store, we changed clothes and noticed that the "Trail Mix" store was open. All of a sudden ice cream sounded good and we each had a Starbucks icecream bar! By far the best treat that I have had in a long time!

We are going back to the valley today for a family hike around the Ledges and then a Birthday Celebration for Denise! I am meeting JP for a run tomorrow afternoon which will wrap up a pretty good week!

20 miles in the valley

I managed to get back to the Buckeye Trail for 20 miles saturday morning. It felt really good to get back onto the section between Boston Store and Ottawa Point. I have not run that section yet this summer! I know, slacker...

The trail was pretty quiet and saw only a couple of hikers and Paul L. who was running the opposite direction. I had dropped water at Snowville road and was glad that I did since the temperatures climbed quickly. I arrived at Boston Store with 19 miles and took a short out-and-back on the towpath for the 20th mile. I thought 20 sounded better than 19, and I felt good in spite of the heat.

Good run and I am looking forward to the first group training run for the Run with Scissors race on August 30th. Should be a good time!!!

The basement project is in the sanding phase. Lots of drywall dust and I think that I am finished with the first half. Now it is time to move everything over to the other side so that I can continue the spackling process. Maybe I'll be done by thanksgiving...