Boo!

I ended up heading out for my long run Friday 7/27 night after dinner.  We hit Olive Garden, and well, you know what happens when you eat at Olive Garden lol ... Per my app I was 1400 calories over and an incredible amount of fat in for the day (SGF and I made sure that we ate first then logged the food so we would enjoy our dinner knowing how bad it was gonna be lol).  SGF ended up going to our gym but I didn't since I left my workout stuff at home for the day ... So I headed home, laced my Pegasus and headed out to the Centennial.  The run to the trail was about 7.5 miles.  When I reached the trail, a nice paved trail that follows an old railroad track, it was pitch black, away from the street lights, and about 10:30pm.  I was actually freaked out but eh, if I ever run an 100 miles endurance foot race there's no way around it I would have to spend an entire night running on dark spooky trails alone ... So I headed out ... In the darkness with nothing but a wide ray of light coming off my head.

This wasn't my first run in the night/dark of course.  If you follow my blog you'll know that I ran several times the airport trail near home by myself after dusk, and ran in the Mulkiteo Gulch with Bob at night as well.  What made this run different was the fact it felt more remote from "civilization" than the airport trail and that I was alone unlike the Gulch runs.  My goal for the run was to reach Snohomish, WA.  Trail's end at about 14 miles south of the trail head.  My familiarity with the trail was both comforting yet useless.  I could only see as far as my headlight.  As soon as I started heading out I could feel a "presence" following close.  I pretty much never "shaked" the feeling so the run ended up being more about to manage that feeling rather than shaking it.  At first I turned the music off because I wanted to be able to hear if an animal or someone was creeping up on me or jumping out the bushes because that was really my biggest worry there.  But after 5 minutes or running in total silence but the wind on the leaves I realized how long and creepy that would make the run so I turned the music back on ... With Josh Groban's music on I was able to relax and proceed with the run.

I reached Lake Stevens faster than I though I would.  The run from Marysville to Lake Stevens is downhill.  When I reached 20th Street trailhead, about 7 miles more into the run, I was pretty happy with myself and how I felt.  So decided to press on for Snohomish.  From there on it was about 7 miles of rolling hills.  There was also more spot close to lighted roads so less darkness to deal with. I kept a good pace throughout.  Nearing Snohomish past midnight, I had the scariest episode of the run.  Finally back in the street light I could see my shadow "running" ahead of me ... By then I was in final stretch mode where I picked the pace up significantly, less than a mile from my pickup point on 2nd and Avenue D, when all the sudden I saw a second, lighter shadow overtaking my shadow ... I literally jumped in the air and did a 180, just a reflex, to see who was running up to me like that.  Half way in the air, I could see nothing, nobody, behind me!  I got spooked by my own shadow lol

Oh well... I though that was funny.  SGF was awesome and stayed up to come extract me.  Easy pickup as I sent her ahead my final location.  Avoided some of the confusion we had on some other pickups before!  The final run was 3:30 and I covered about 21.2 miles.

That was going to be the last run for that day, but little did I know I would put in another 7 miles that same Saturday night at Seafair ... Read about that in my next article !

My Spooky Spooky Moon Light Run in the Woods ...

Hello blogosphere, it's been a while since my last post.  There are several subject I wanna touch so really this will be more of a brain dump / catch all for the night.  Queensrÿche's Sliver playing and I am resting from my evening run ... I had a great run tonight, it was a good reminder of why I love running so much.  I think sometimes you get busy with the minutes details of life and forget to indulge in the things that make you a happier human being.  Bits and pieces of things I wanted to write about in the blog kept passing through my head and for an instant I wish I was able to write my blog as I run, I think that would enhance the material so much !

I completed the Last Chance Marathon about 2 weeks ago now.  I decided to go for my first 50k next and I set the P90x plans aside for a while.  I have been struggling a little figuring out what the right schedule for ramping up for that 50k ... but more about that in a different article.  I was out for 16 miles on Saturday.  The logic behind so many miles was that if I considered the slower pace marathon a training run for the 50k then heck yeah lets put in some mileage!  It was a moderately difficult run physically.  I started at the 152nd centennial trail head and continued north towards Arlington.  That new section is about only about a mile long so it was a little let down.  It connects along 67th on sidewalks and then the trail continues parallel to the railroad tracks.  That's the north section I ran before.  I ran the trail to Bryant and back, about 8.1 mile each way.

 

The first 10 -12 miles felt great but the last 4 felt much more a challenge.  In hindsight, 10 -12 miles would had been the perfect distance, which unto itself is pretty good considering I ran 26 miles the week before lol ... I though about calling SBF to pick me up in North Marysville but figured I could finish.  I broke a few tenets of training right there, pushed too hard too soon after a marathon.   Sunday my right quad and right IT band started bothering me.  I am not quite sure what I did during the run that affected my quad, maybe didn't stretch properly?  My therapist says that my quad is very tight.  We worked on it yesterday and it felt better today.  As my IT band ... rolling and stretching lol ... I hope I manage it right !

I did the stationary bike at the gym yesterday instead of running.  My cross-training has been lacking and I figure that would provide relief to my IT band.  I had physical therapy right after.   After a couple of days I felt so great the marathon then I began feeling sluggish.  It's very similar to how I felt following Vegas RnR, so I figure the sluggishness may be part of my body's recovery process ... If so by next week or so I should start feeling spectacular again!  Although I felt like crap this evening, I put my gear on and hit the Airport trail.   This run was short of amazing only because so freaky ... so freaky because I was on the trail in the woods at night ... looking at shadows following my headband light beam ... Feeling like someone was pacing me at time ... Seeing weird shapes here and there. 

I will not lie I was scared to do it to being with.  A fear similar albeit much less intense than skydiving.  There is freedom and pleasure in letting go when you jump from a perfectly good airplane thousand feet in the air ... And hitting the dark trail had that same mix of fear and excitement, more so because the danger is less so I didn't have to be so focused ... I could let go my worries and just did it ... The end I began running at started in the woods and I started there purposely: to deal with the fear.  I mean really there wasn't much to worry about but hey still sounds pretty good when I write that !  After managing 3.5 miles through mostly dark areas the path clears along the airport of trees and such so it wasn't so dark anymore ... I tried to capture the feeling there ... 

 

Anyhow ... great run :)  Tomorrow depending how I feel I will do some laps at the pool ... oooh looking forward to it !  I have not selected any specific route for Saturday.  I think I should do about 13-14 miles ... Then 8 to ten Sunday possibly.  Happy running everyone and watch those IT bands !

Centennial Trail

A favorite amongst cyclist and runners alike.  This is a paved trail that runs from Arlington to Snohomish.  There is another paved section that runs North of Arlington to Bryant that I have never been on.  But I have run, in sections, the entire trail at one point or another.  My first ever "long run" was a ten miler on the trail between Machias and North Marysville.  This was about 2 years ago and I was so un-prepared for it physically I lost my toe nails as a results.  Well today I completed another check mark toward my training.  I ran the trail in its entirety, starting at the south end (Pine and Maple in Snohonish) and completed the run at the 67th avenue trailhead in North Arlington.  The trail is 17.37 miles according to my RunKeeper app.  This isn't the longest run as I completed 20.13 miles last week however about 2/3 incline.  The elevation change was 513 feet.  I feel the soreness in my legs, it's taken me a couple of hours to recover from this run ... So pretty sure I had a good workout !

At the start in Snohomish there were a lot of cyclist.  I wasn't very surprised as Snohomish is a great little city to bike through so there are always cyclists there but turns out that these cyclists were part of the RSVP (Ride from Seattle to Vancouver, BC and Party) ...

The greatest little surprise today was a lemonade stand at milepost 14 under the 108th Street bridge, manned by a couple of very enterprising young girls ... There lemonade was the perfect blend of sourness and sweetness to get me to the end of the run.  The had setup a sign about 500 feet away from the bridge on the northbound and southbound of the trail.

Centennial trail:

17.37 miles

2:58:11

10:15 min/miles