Training Log Archive: RLShadow

In Ohiopyle, PA, visiting our daughter Andrea. Went on a trail run in Ohiopyle State Park, which ended in a road run of a few miles. Trail section involved 800 feet of climb over about 2 miles, then a flatter section, with still a few ups and downs. I was running out of time, in terms of when I was supposed to meet up with Cheryl and Andrea, so instead of doing the trail back down, I ran a road, which was a significant workout because of the long downhill portion. All in all, a worthwhile workout, I thought.

Average pace on the trail section (mostly significant uphill) was 13:26/mile. Average pace on the road section (generally downhill, although with some significant flat parts and even a few uphills) was 7:58/mile. Probably should have logged it as two separate workouts since they were so different.

Semi-long run on a warm, sticky morning. Mainly Hojack Trail. Anne and I started at Klem, ran to North Ponds Park, once around the pond, then took the "bird" trail from Orchard to Rt. 250, and back to Orchard. Then back to Hojack, to Lake Rd, and back to Klem. We ran together until the part from Klem to Lake; we split up at Klem because she didn't want to go quite as far, and it was a chance for me to go a little faster. I averaged around 9:30 while we were running together, and 8:30 after we split up.

Working on Seneca Park map.

Very very hot and muggy.

Bizarre marathon-related dream last night. I rarely remember anything about dreams, but this one I did recall in moderate detail, but there are a lot of other details that I can't quite put my mind around once I woke up.

Mike Lyons and Anne Schwartz were in the dream, but both in fairly minor roles.

Here are a few things I do remember:

There was a lot of confusion before the start, for some reason I'm not remembering. I hadn't even parked my car as of a few minutes before, and I was walking towards the start from the direction of the course itself, so I saw the top runners go off. It was supposed to be a big marathon but for some reason the field was way smaller than expected, like maybe a few hundred. I was having trouble finding Anne, who I was supposed to start off with, so I called out "Anne Schwartz?" and Anne replied, from somewhere in the start pack, and we must have gotten connected but only briefly, for some reason.

Then at some point, maybe a half of the way through the marathon, I decided to stop into a restaurant to get something to eat, like a pastry. (See, I said this was weird.) While in there, Mike Lyons also came in; he was doing the marathon also, and he stopped in to get a cup of coffee (like that would ever happen). He saw me sitting there eating a pastry, and said "You don't really have it together for this race, do you?", and I said something to the effect that no, I didn't at all ... Then I asked him many miles into the race this was, and he said "Somewhere between 20 and 27 km", with a slight smile. I couldn't tell if he was smiling because I asked for miles and he replied in km, or because he didn't really know (which would be totally unlike him), or what.

For some reason, I didn't continue running right then. I think I had trouble finding my way back to the course or something like that. Somehow, I got transported to the finish line, but I didn't run there. I was debating whether to try to get back to the point in the course where I had stopped, and actually finish the race, but I looked at my watch (it was just a regular watch, not a gps) and it said 3:00 pm, so I figured that this was something like 7 hours after the start, and there was obviously no point in trying to finish the race. Then I thought I saw Anne picking up her finisher jacket, and I called out to her, but realized it was someone who looked a lot like her, but wasn't. I then realized that my watch was set for the wrong time zone, and it was really 11:00 am, so it was only about 3 hours into the race (and of course Anne wouldn't finish in under 3 hours). And I decided to try to get back to where I had stopped, and complete the course. But when I got outside, it was totally dark (I know, it is supposed to be 11:00 am, and not dark), and I was very disoriented and had no way of figuring out which way to go to get back to the race course.

That was the end of my dream. I warned that it was weird.

Hopefully this doesn't mean that my next marathon attempt will be a total disaster! :)

C • Marathon Plans 1

Warm up (2 miles) and cool down (0.5 miles) for interval workout.

Intervals (if you can call something this slow "intervals").

4x400m, average 1:41
about 1:15 rest between them

First intervals in many months and it showed.