Category: Runs

Today I did 8.67 miles in hilly Clemmons, NC. This is my longest run here to date. It was 39 degrees, sunny, and I actually felt a bit warm (I was wearing a goose-down vest). It was slow, but I wasn’t about speed. I was only about going the distance. Here are the deets:

Of note, a barking dog ran up to me as I passed one property (this is rural NC), and it even came into the road. I stopped and reassured it and it didn’t come after me; it seemed more bark than bite. When I came back around (I was doing an out and back), it didn’t see me until I was nearly past their property.

My pace was an 8:19 pace, but other than seeming maybe a little slower toward the end, it felt pretty even and I wasn’t pushing myself. I’ve been eating horribly of late, and feel as if I’m carrying the crud I’ve eaten. But I got out nonetheless.

This morning I did 5 hill repeats … kinda with my dogs. This is the hill my home in NC is on. Here are the deets:





The last hill, I didn’t really complete. A car came downhill as I went up, with my little Shih-Tzu following behind me. I slowed to make sure the car could tell she was there. My other dog was gracefully passing me as I went up.

The temperature was about 32 degrees, feeling in the 20s. Sunny and peaceful. I did alright going up the hills–it’s definitely tougher toward the end of these .09-mile lengths. Oh, and the maps are a bit misleading: I started at the stop sign at the base of the hill, and I finished at the next-door neighbor’s mailbox. Garmin maps kinda funny sometimes. I see that Garmin didn’t always recognize my elevation. Thanks a ton, Garmin–I definitely felt the incline!

Again today I set out to do 8 miles but I did something shorter than that: 6.15 miles (well, I thought I’d done a 10K). I was a little quicker but still had basically the same motive as yesterday–“just run.” Not only did my warm clothing again motivate me, but also my low expectations. Still, I ended up running 8:05s, which wasn’t really evident to me and might be explained by the warmer temperature than yesterday, which wasn’t all that noticeable to be quite honest. Here are the deets:

The bathroom didn’t call today. I’ve been running in new shoes–Mizuno Wave Rider 14s–which are a bit of a stiff shoe but one that I like. I’m wondering if its size (10.5) is too big for my foot … but I know the next lowest size (10) is too small. The reason I wonder is that my plantar feels as if it gets a bit of stretching in this show, suggesting a lack of support my higher arches need. It is the Wave Rider 13 (I think that’s the number) that left me with plantar fasciitis for my 2009 training, so maybe I should watch it. Of note, this year I trained in Wave Creation 12s, which were just fine and left my plantar a-okay. Actually, I trained this year in Wave Precisions, if memory serves!

I’ve been thinking more about the Empire State Building Run-Up. I did some searches for videos yesterday and have been wondering about training for it. We’ll see.