Beautiful place

I wasn't too slow. In fact, I was pretty happy with my final pace. I had a 10 mile run on par for today. I'm not even following a schedule now. I had to give up on it a long time ago (like January). Anyway, I got directions and headed on up to Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park.

Got there a little after 9a and got everything ready; Phil my Garmin, water bottle belt with one big bottle in it (didn't bring my 4 bottle fuel belt with me) and my iPod. There's no way that I could run 10 miles without some music. I tucked my camera, Clif Shot Bloks and my car keys in my jacket pocket. Plenty of runners already on the trail. Most running the opposite way that I had planned on running.

1 lap on the trail that runs along the lake is about 4 miles I found out. I did that lap first. Then on the second lap I went "off course" and did the scenic way which is for pedestrians only and gravely. Quite pretty though. Then I had to head back around the southern part of the lake. It was quite windy there and my eyes watered a bit.

Then I joined up with the same path again as the first lap and by the time I got to my car I was just over 9 miles and I went another mile out to make 10, then swung back around to make up the other mile. I ended up going a total of 11 miles! YAY! Go me!

Things I saw along the way
Lots of runners as I mentioned. Only a few waved back at me. I ended up passing the same people around and around the lake as they were running the opposite direction as me. That was pretty cool. These 3 girls passed me going the other way and just stared at me as I waved to them. Bitches. I didn't even bother when I caught back up on the other side.

Lots of robins. They are definitely out and about. They also have very full bellies and flew very low. My mother told me that was because they were full of eggs. Not sure if that's true or not but I like to think that cause it reminds me of my mom.

Deer. Well, baby deer I think. It was odd. The three of them were along a slope of grass and their tails were down but I didn't see any adult nearby so I guess they were on their own. They were missing their fawn spots so I guess they were old enough.

On the first loop, I passed by the main pavilion and parking lot with the nice bathrooms and I saw a table with water coolers & what looked like a bottle of pretzels. My eyes adjusted and I saw that the sign on the table read Go! St. Louis Marathon Training Run. Too funny! I ran over and took a quick picture.

Then on the second loop and passing the same area, more tents, a motor home & some tarps around the pavilion went up and they had a fire going. I passed the pavilion and it says that it was the Law Enforcement Polar Bear Plunge. I wanted to stick around and see it for myself but I didn't know what time they started. It would be a good day for it though with the colder temperatures here lately!

All in all, I felt pretty good as the run ended. My splits were pretty consistent throughout the run until I hit mile 7 then I started to slow down. At mile 3 I had a couple swigs of Gatorade. I also had 2 Shot Bloks. I learned to leave them on the side of my mouth so that they'll dissolve instead of trying to chew them. It still took some work but I got it so that I wasn't choking on them like last time. At mile 6 I did the same thing again, Gatorade and 2 more Shot Bloks. Then I started guessing that I'd be able to go longer than 10 and so instead of eating at 9, I ate them at 8 miles and drank a lot more Gatorade.

I am quite jealous over the course of this park. It's quite pretty and long and I would love to be able to run on it every Saturday instead of the backroads of DeKalb County. Boring, flat & windy. Below you'll find several photos that I took while out. You'll see the Go! St. Louis table that I saw as well as the Polar Bear plunge.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 450 ft Location: Maryland Heights, MO Elev. Gain: +3 ft Date: 02/28/09 Up/Downhill: [+354/-351] Time: 09:16 AM Difficulty: 3.7 / 5.0 Weather: Light Snow 29 F temp; 71% humidity 29 F heat index; winds NE 14 Performance Distance: 11.00 miles Time: 1:51:19 Speed: 5.9 mph Pace: 10' 07 /mi Heart Rate: 175 bpm (Avg) Calories: 1189 184 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 06 -1' 01 6.6 +0.7 160 0 ft 2 9' 57 -0' 10 6.0 +0.1 177 +4 ft 3 10' 09 +0' 02 5.9 -0.0 176 +3 ft 4 10' 07 +0' 00 5.9 -0.0 176 -3 ft 5 10' 02 -0' 05 6.0 +0.0 175 +6 ft 6 10' 06 -0' 01 5.9 +0.0 175 -3 ft 7 10' 27 +0' 20 5.7 -0.2 177 -3 ft 8 10' 21 +0' 14 5.8 -0.1 177 +10 ft 9 10' 16 +0' 09 5.8 -0.1 177 -10 ft 10 10' 18 +0' 11 5.8 -0.1 176 -4 ft 11 10' 04 -0' 03 6.0 +0.0 180 +3 ft Versus average of 10' 07 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 11 miles, Creve Coeur, pictures

Rejoice; we conquer!

This is what Pheidippides said after he ran from Marathon to Athens to tell his fellow Greeks that they had won the war. He died on the spot. This is also what I said after I got done running or whatever today. Luckily, I didn't die. :-)

Keep in mind that I have only ran twice this month after my marathon. One of 3 miles and the other a few days ago of only 2 miles. So yea, 11 miles is HUGE undertaking for me. But I knew I had to get out there and do it! I just hope I didn't injure myself doing so.

But I think I'll be fine mainly cause the second half of my run, I walked the majority of it. ONLY because I was dealing with winds of 25 mph with gusts up to 37 mph. So bite me! I have never ran in winds like that before. Sure I've done over 15 mph to about 19-20 in about 15 degree weather; but not 25!

Now, I won't be the first to admit that I'm skinny. And very rarely I do. I'm quite lightweight for my height. 5'10" and 130lbs (thanks to marathon training I lost about 2-4lbs.) So after my turn around, I unfortunately started to head back south after a while and that's when things got hairy. After running for 6 miles, I was getting tired and no way could I fight the wind. So unfortunately, every time the wind starting blowing, I couldn't keep running; walking ended up being faster! At times, I was literally head down, hands on knees and leaning into the wind. Of course and every time I hit a hill, the wind picked up. I think my mind quit on me in the second half too. :-)

The best part of the run is that it was 70 degrees when I started running. Well, once I got out there I realised quickly that it was NOT the best part of the run. It got hot! 80% humidity too. My hair was going all wonky on me. I ended up taking off my shirt and just tucking it into my water belt. I really wished that I would have brought water out with me instead of Gatorade cause I would have poured that over my head a few times. It feels really weird to be running in shorts & a tank on Dec 27!! I looked this morning and saw that by 4p the temperature is going to start dropping and by 4am tomorrow, it's gonna be 36. I knew that I had to take advantage of this temperature while I had the chance!

I did notice that on the second half, I was getting goosebumps. I think that means I was getting dehydrated. I also started to stop sweating. I don't think those are good signs.

After I was done, I took a video of the wind blowing in the trees. I tried explaining it but the wind just drowned me out. The video is below.



I'm gonna do a few runs during this week to get my mileage back up to par and then probably another long run of 11 miles on Sunday (I'll be travelling back to northern Illinois on Saturday).

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 432 ft Location: Valier, IL Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 12/27/08 Up/Downhill: [+633/-633] Time: 11:46 AM Difficulty: 3.3 / 5.0 Weather: Overcast and Breezy 72 F temp; 63% humidity 72 F heat index; winds S 21 G 35 Performance Distance: 11.00 miles Time: 1:59:41 Speed: 5.5 mph Pace: 10' 53 /mi Calories: 1153 Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Elevation Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 58 -1' 55 6.7 +1.2 +3 ft 2 9' 31 -1' 22 6.3 +0.8 -10 ft 3 10' 18 -0' 35 5.8 +0.3 +46 ft 4 10' 20 -0' 33 5.8 +0.3 -29 ft 5 10' 34 -0' 19 5.7 +0.2 -4 ft 6 10' 28 -0' 25 5.7 +0.2 0 ft 7 11' 52 +0' 59 5.0 -0.5 0 ft 8 11' 52 +0' 59 5.0 -0.5 +23 ft 9 11' 23 +0' 30 5.3 -0.2 -33 ft 10 12' 17 +1' 24 4.9 -0.6 +16 ft 11 11' 33 +0' 40 5.2 -0.3 -13 ft end 11' 40 +0' 47 5.1 -0.4 0 ft Versus average of 10' 53 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com

Categories: 11 miles, Rend Lake, southern illinois

11 miles baby!

So I thought I was impressive with my 10 mile run last week. But today I did 11 miles! Boo-ya! Again it was hurtful though afterwards. Like even just walking home I was already feeling the effects. I could hardly cross Bethany Road before a car almost hit me and then honked at me.

I did stop at the music building to go to the bathroom. Bad idea. One, it was really hot inside since it was cold outside. Two, I was sweating buckets by this time so my clothes were sticking to me like crazy. Three, when I got outside, I could see the steam rising off my arms because of my heat and then the heat of the building. I started running again and things just didn't feel right from that point on. But it was just about halfway point so I knew I had to keep on pushing. And I managed to another 5.5 miles!

I also went a different way. I went back through Hopkins Park and then up through the subdivision near Joanne Rd that leads to 1st Street. I knew I was going to encounter a hill but I was going to encounter a hill on the bike path anyway. I nearly died going up that hill though. Blah.

And I still have my cough too. It wasn't bothering me while I was running but after I did a lot. So it's not that it's bothering me while I'm running which is good just afterwards. I hope it goes away!

Categories: 11 miles, long run