Monday, March 19: Gwinnett Environmental & Heritage Center Trails – 7 miles – Ran two loops of the sweet gum trail and added an inner loop of the stream ecology trail. This was a pretty hilly run, nothing too crazy in terms of length but a lot of up and down with a couple of steep climbs and steep drops. Amanda made a St. Paddy’s day dinner tonight since she worked this weekend, corned beef with boiled potatoes, carrots and biscuits, and she topped it off with homemade mint Oreos. Pintrest may be a girly website, but my stomach is certainly reaping some benefits from it.
Tuesday, March 20: Gainesville State College – 11 – After work I drove over to Gainesville State to get in two loops of the mountain bike trail (5.5ish per loop). This is another staple run for me…it’s relatively flat, so it was a good place to run after yesterday’s hilly run. This is also the site of one of the Dirty Spokes series races, so I like to get out on it whenever I can to keep that ace up my sleeve of knowing the course really well, even if I did get dusted by Ferenc when he came down to run it last year. Prior to the run I was a little nervous as my left foot started bothering me after yesterday’s run but it wasn’t too bad once I got going. It did bother me when I got home after getting out of the shower, so I definitely need to keep that in mind over the next few days. I think it’s probably just another slight sprain or strain, which I get from time to time due to terrain or old shoes. It’s probably time to invest in a new pair of daily trainers.
Wednesday, March 21: GEHC Trails – 9 miles – I got out of work a little late today so I had to bag the trip to Chicopee Woods that I was planning due to the fact that it takes about an hour and a half to do the run I had planned and I’m not sure what time they close the gates at this point in the year. I ended up heading home and doing a modified version of my normal run adding a loop of the stream ecology trail to make the run nine instead of the usual eight. I’m pretty happy with the way this week is shaping up mileage wise, now I just need to keep it up.
Thursday, March 22: AM – GEHC Trails – 5 miles – With trivia tonight I wanted to get in 10 and I wasn’t sure how much time I’d have after work so I got up a little early and hit the trails for an out and back five to start the day. I am planning in getting out for another five tonight. My foot was still a little tender at the start of the run but once I got going it loosened up and felt alright. I’ve run the last two days in a pair of high cushion shoes that I have left over from working at GBRC and I think that’s helped. I need my Saucony order to come in ASAP.
PM – Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – Hit the greenway for an easy out and back five miles after I got out of work to get myself 10 on the day. It was nice to spilt today’s runs with five in the am and pm, usually I like to run a little longer on one of the runs but I was just looking to get 10 on the board for today.
Friday, March 23: Chicopee Woods – 10 miles – Today was a little bit of a weird day. I got out of work a little early, but then ended up having to do a few things from home, so I didn’t get out to start my run as early as I wanted to, howevah…it ended up working out well because a little bit of rain and the late hour cooled things off and kept the trail clear of anyone else. Before I get into the details here’s some info about Chicopee Woods. This is another mountain bike trail system that I am fortunate enough to be able to run on. It features something like 20 miles of single track and actually had trails ranked in terms of difficulty like a ski resort. Whenever I go to Chicopee I tend to say on three of the trails, the coyote loop (2.7 miles), the tortoise trail (2.5) and the white tail trail (5.3). Normally I will link those three together to get 10.5 or add the 1.7 mile red tail trail to get 12ish.
The tortoise trail is the gateway to most of the trail system but I find that because this is a hilly area and some of the trails are tight a lot of the people that ride out here tend to ride the more difficult copperhead gap or flying squirrel trails, this allows for a peaceful coexistence between runner and mountain biker on these trails…a far cry from Gainesville State, which I like to run, but almost always run into people that are not paying attention, listening to their ipods and zoning out on the trail. Not a good idea!
Saturday, March 24: Ft. Yargo State Park – 13 miles – Woke up at 7:00 to knock out the news clips for the day then headed over to Ft. Yargo for a run on the mountain bike trail. It was an awesome morning for a run. I definitely need to make it over here earlier in the morning more often. It was nice and cool in the trees for the first few miles then warmed up as the run went on. The pipeline hill was still brutal in both directions but overall it was a nice smooth run. I think I came in around 1:45, which is pretty standard for this loop on a normal day. After I got back home, Amanda and I went to Five Guys, which is one of my favorite things to do after running for nearly two hours…nothing like a burger and cherry coke to recover.
Sunday, March 25: Ivy Creek Greenway – 5 miles – I hit 60 in six days this week so I decided to back off a little on Sunday to give my body a little bit of a break. I thought about running 10, 8, 5 or just taking the day off, but decided that I would rather get something in and I haven’t been running huge mileage or anything terribly fast so I settled on five and will look to continue to build my mileage to the 65-75 range next week.
Weekly Totals: 65 miles on eight runs – Overall I am happy with the week. I increased my mileage after having a little bit of a dip over the last couple of weeks. From here on out I would like to at least average 10 miles per day with a couple of shorter days mixed in and a few longer ones to balance everything out. I figure I’ve still got a couple months before the temperatures begin to soar and I have to reduce my mileage and go back down to running about an hour per day in the morning. Next week I need to get the ball rolling on workouts. I’ve got some stuff coming up with work so I’m thinking of a longer tempo run at Chicopee or maybe mile repeats one the GEHC trails. My goal for the week is to be between 65 and 75 in terms of miles. I’d love to jack my miles up into the 80’s or 90’s but for now I’m going to stick with the range I’m in and see how that works. Next race on the calendar is the Dirty Spokes Olde Rope Mill trail race on April 7th. That was my worst race of the series last year, so hopefully I will be able to run better there this year.
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