Training Log Archive: Linear Ice

Warmup
Road run on as flat a road as I could find in Afton
3 miles, aimed for 7 min/mile, first mile in 7:02 then apparently picked it up a little although I felt like I was dragging the entire way and really had to keep pushing myself. Finished in 20:28.
8 minute warmdown.
Funny part about the route... when I was mapping it out, and looking at the mile marker... and wondering if I would be able to remember where it was while I was running (zooming in to see what was around it), I said to myself....Oh, there's a good catching feature, the big Airplane in the yard just beyond the mile point. THAT would be hard to miss!

Do you ever have that feeling that things are going so well and you know that at the pace you're going, you could just run forever and then you turn around and realize you were going slightly downhill with the wind at your back? That was a good bit of this run.

3M down Battle Creek Trail, South along the Mississippi River on Point Douglas Rd and back, then North along the trail to St. Paul and back... and back up Battle Creek Trail.

It was a nice enough day that the jacket, gloves and hat came off and hidden in a snowbank about 1/2 mile into this run. The trail was mostly clear of snow. The icy spots that remained were incredibly slick, however, which meant there was some unavoidable walking.

I kept up a nice gentle trot, mindless, kept legs loose. Nice to get out of work for a couple of hours, clear calendar, work mostly complete... sunny day.
My goal was to run exactly two hours; I didn't have a watch and so I feel pretty good with how close I came... only five minutes off!

Based on my inability to see map features at Snowgaine, I went to an optometrist today to see if I could get monovision lens before St. Louis, with time to get used to it.

I am just not seeing the features on the map well enough even with my cool looking safety glasses... a quick search of AP discussions revealed that having one nearsighted corrective contact lens might do the trick.
My optometrist was very very helpful and accommodating and promised to help figure out how I could read a map better while running... understood it was important to me. (My last optometrist just looked at me like I was crazy, tried to sell me expensive normal bifocals, so I "fired" him. I don't think he liked me much either so he's probably glad to be rid of me and back to normal people).

We settled on a lens that is nearsighted on the edges, and medium-sighted in the middle... with the thought that I could see 3D for logs, etc. and read the map.... and see 3D and farsighted with the other eye.

I used the treadmill to see if my shiny new lens was up to the task. I brought a map, tried to pick out a course at a orienteering terrain pace. I think it's better.... still not so easy to pick a route with the paper moving around, but at least when I jump off quickly I can see the finer features.
I will try it for a few days, go back to optometrist next Monday, and maybe try the lens that is just plain old nearsighted, without the medium (3D) capability.

BTW, I KNEW I was at the right place when the receptionist, an older fellow named Avi, saw my map and mentioned that he used to do orienteering in Sweden as a child. I gave him the MNOC web site address and told him he should show up.

I ran 1 mile at a 9:30 pace (orienteering), then just finished off a little bit at a 6:40 pace before realizing I was trying to rest my AT and treadmill is not good for that =(

Also felt I should work on my "hills" so I bumped my heartrate up to between 170 and 180 and let my thighs burn for a while... then back down below 140. Did this nine times, and then a warm-down.

Took Alice out for a little run, walked part of River road when I ran into my friend Jan and her two dogs. Dogs played, we talked.
Ran up the big hill to give those muscles a bit of a chance to get used again... loosen things up a bit before it gets stiff, but took it easy.
Ran down the longer hill... and got a chance to stretch out just a little bit, which the legs liked.