Wheelin' and Reelin'

Got back in the saddle today, so to speak. I've been spending a lot of time running of late and had been neglecting my bicycles a bit...so today I went out to ride in Greensboro. I started out on the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park road, then veered off into Country Park and did their circular park road, then back into GCHNMP and finished up their loop before turning off onto the Yadkin & Atlantic Greenway. I took it all the way to the end, and then circled back the way I came. I had hoped to venture off onto one of the mountain bike trails, but they were all closed due to mudslides resulting from a heavy storm that ripped through the area yesterday. So I returned to my starting point and did another lap around GCHNMP and Country Park to finish out my ride. It ended up being 17.52 miles, although honestly it didn't feel that far...I could have kept going but I was back near my truck and really wasn't feeling the idea of re-riding the same circuit again. I really need to get up to Galax again and ride the New River Trail...it's long enough that I don't have to worry about riding the same section more than twice on any given trip.

Pushing the limits!

Today I woke up and decided I'd try a morning run...I've always run in the afternoon or late at night, never in the morning. It was still reasonably cool outside when I started, but my legs were feeling really stiff and sore. I trudged along at a nice slow pace for a mile and then locked into a pattern of walk .25 mile, run .75 mile for the duration. I challenged myself mentally to exceed my maximum distance to date with a goal of 6 miles. I ended up running 7.02 miles and keeping an average pace of 12:24 per mile...not bad if I do say so myself. I really felt like I could have gone a little further today, but my route brought me back by the house and I always have such a hard time going on after I see it sitting there, calling out to me with cool air conditioning and magical snacks of power. But sometimes giving into temptation is a good thing.

Today's run put me at 48.49 miles this month...with 5 days left I think I'll be surpassing the 50 miles per month mark, which has me smiling from ear to ear. I would have never thought a year ago that I'd be running 50 miles a month.

Tomorrow I plan on biking and then Sunday I'm planning to do both a run and a ride...we'll see how it turns out!

Moonlight Bootlegger 5k

Last night I ran a 5k trail run...in the dark. Yep, doesn't seem like the smartest plan but I had a great time. The course was challenging and well marked with glowing lights, and the moonlight was nice and bright. I ran it in a decent time I think, coming in at 35: 12 and placing 106th out of 216 participants. I placed 11th out of the 19 in my age group, which I don't feel too bad about...I was only about 10 minutes off the fastest guy. I hope to make this an annual event, as it was lots of fun.

Slow down, cool down.

After pushing myself just about as hard as I could during the last 7 days, I took a little break Sunday...I only rode 20 miles on my bike. No running, in an attempt to let my body recover a bit. Monday I went out for a 3.5 mile run around the neighborhood, but did no bike ride. Yesterday I slacked completely and did nothing but some walking during my regular workday...I regret that already, I missed my Nike+ Fuel goal for the first time in 9 days. So today I'm working a half day and planning on going for a run and a bike ride before heading out to see one of my favorite bands, Toad the Wet Sprocket, play a show. Still going to try and take it a little easy though, as I have the Moonlight Bootlegger 5k coming up on Friday night and I want to make sure my body has enough energy to complete it in good time!

Feel the Burn!

Today I continued with my stupidity, thinking "why would I need to take a rest day, I've only logged 50+ miles this week between my rides and runs?"

I took off after lunch for a quick mile run to keep my legs feeling loose and ended up doing 5.59 miles. I ran the first mile, then alternated walking and running every 1/2 mile for the duration. I think I probably would have gone much farther had I not wound up back in front of my house. I'm finding that running in my neighborhood (and biking for that matter too) is somewhat counter-productive, in that I run out of places to go without doing laps which I find to be inherently boring.

So, after a somewhat healthy dinner I decided to go for a bike ride to keep up the action and ensure I met my Nike+ Fuel goal for the day. I ended up riding 11.5 miles, which puts me at a total of 49.19 miles in the saddle this week. Add that to the 18.74 miles I've run and I'm just shy of 70 miles this week. I plan on riding tomorrow if all goes well, in hopes of surpassing the 75 mile mark for the week. I'm not sure my knees can take another run, but knowing me I'll probably do it anyway.

Raiders of the Lost (in the) Park

So this morning I decided I needed to go out and buy some trail running shoes. I've been doing some runs on the trails at local parks and after my experience running the Vineyard Stomp 5k I was getting a bit nervous about my footwear for the upcoming Moonlight Bootlegger 5k...so I went shopping. After looking around a bit at several stores I settled on a pair of New Balance 411v2 trail running shoes. They're stylish and felt good on my feet, and appeared to have all the rugged gripping devices I would ever need...and at less than $60 I felt they were just what I needed.

Now, I'm a sucker and a glutton for punishment. That's a given. So what do I decide to do after buying my new shoes? Break them in, of course. So I went out to a little wooded walking trail near one of the churches near me and went for a few laps. Clearly no one had used this trail in a while and I felt a bit like Indiana Jones coming through a cave filled with spider webs...I was covered from head to toe in webs by the time I finished a mile long run. Disgusted with the spiderwebs, and the generally boring terrain at this trail I packed up and rode a few miles down the road to Hagan Stone Park. I told myself I'd run a 5k along the Chatfield Trail, with which I'm fairly familiar. But, trying to be adventurous, I decided to run the trail in reverse from my past experiences. First mistake. I also decided that the rain wasn't that bad and it'd be ok running in the woods. Second mistake. Needless to say I got hopelessly lost at around the 2.5 miles mark and ended up coming out of the woods onto the service road. At which point the bottom let out. I got soaked, and ended up only getting in 2.75 miles, the last .25 miles of which I walked on pavement fearing damage to my new trail shoes. 

But, at least I got in almost 4 miles today. Hot, wet and bug-filled miles, but miles nonetheless.

On the road...by default.

So I finally broke down and bought an in-rail bike mount for my Toyota Tacoma. I'd been putting it off because Toyota wanted almost $200 for one that works with my internal bed-rail system. After much searching I found that Rocky Mounts made a compatible part an I got one ordered through the magic of Amazon.com the other day.

This morning I got it installed and hit the road intending to go for a trail ride. I arrived at Guilford Courthouse NMP and rode the 3 miles down to the trailhead for the Blue Herron trail...only to find it closed due to recent rains. So I rode another mile down to the Owl's Roost trail...same story. So I ended up doing 12.4 miles along the paved greenway instead.

It was a nice ride, but not what I'd planned...here's looking to drier weather soon!

Give me Fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire!

Been awhile since an update, lots going on at home and at work and I've been inherently lazy since returning from the beach. But, I'm back on the wagon so to speak and I've logged 7.2 miles in the last 3 days...a 3.1 mile run and a 4.1 mile run. And I've been tracking my daily activity with the Nike+ Fuel Band to help get an idea of my overall activity level from day to day. Of course, working night shift I feel I'm a little off my game, but I've met my goal of 3,000 Fuel Points for 3 of the last 6 days, only missing it by 39 points yesterday. I find the Nike+ Fuel Band to be very motivational...I keep up with it throughout the day and it reminds me to take the long route and actually move about a bit more as I go about my daily business. I have some time off coming up over the next few weeks and I hope to log a lot of miles both on foot and on the bike...plus I have the Moonlight Bootlegger 5k coming up on July 19th...very excited about my physical fitness prospects for July!