Back from Mexico

Quiet week - went to Mexico for 5 days for my niece's wedding. Had an awesome time, but it wasn't very runner friendly - the road was way too tight to comfortably run, and I've never been a beach runner. Not to mention the morning temps were in the high 70s, so it would have been a struggle. So, I sat on my butt and ate a lot of awesome food.

Back in the saddle again yesterday, though - put in almost 6 miles to knock off a bunch of streets over near Hanaford elementary school.

That makes the overall map look like the following - getting very close to finishing everything NE of Rt 4 and Frenchtown.

Figured out a couple things

First thing I figured out... I can get past this blood donation weakness thing by following the standard runner's mantra of not going out too fast. The first 3-4 times I ran after donating, I went out at my usual pace and burned out pretty quickly. This morning, I knew what I was in for and started off slow and steady. I essentially had a negative split, aside from mile 7 which included the run up Middle Rd from Rt 2 - a hefty hill that I can't fault myself for slowing down on...

Nothing wrong with that... Those times as a whole aren't great compared to my pre-donation pace, but they are light years ahead of the struggles I've had for the past 2 weeks - I never slowed down or walked unlike all other runs since the blood donation.

The next thing I figured out is that running the Division section with the Rt 95 and Rt 4 on/off ramps is just fine before 6 AM on a Sunday (and probably Saturday). I left the house this AM at 5:45 and made it through that section without issue on my way west of Rt 2.

Pretty slow week - I knocked out another portion of the Tanglewood area on Weds then took some time off to recover.

This morning's 8 mile run was to finish off Stone Ridge. A TON of houses for sale back there - beautiful neighborhood with some houses that back up to the EG golf course. Very similar in design to the Cindyann neighborhood, so I'm thinking it might have been the same builder...

Overall, here's what the map is looking like:

I'm focusing on north of Middle (long runs) and east of Rt 4 (medium / long runs). I think that might build up my endurance enough to venture southwest...

One other thing I'll point out before I wrap up. My new Garmin watch can download apps, and I pulled down something calls dwMap. It's fantastic for this endeavor - it allows me to map out my runs on a website and then push the map to my watch. That is priceless when it comes to all the backtracking, dead-ends, etc. - there are some cases where I can't remember if the dead-end that I need to knock off is straight ahead or to the left, and heading to the non-dead-end means a return trip to that area to simply cross off the dead-end. It also incorporates all of the standard Garmin tracking - speed, distance, pace, heart rate, etc. - so it's a very nice bonus. I've considered carrying a piece of paper with turn-by-turn instructions, but this seems to be footing the bill for me. More about it here: http://dynamic.watch/.

I'm a horrible estimator...

Went out for a couple runs over the past week and did a horrendous job of guessing the distance of those runs. The first was written up in my last post, the "I need to finish Hill and Harbor" that turned into an 8 mile endeavor... Next up was a short run where I knocked off a little neighborhood of mostly patio homes tucked into a corner of Middle Rd and Rt 2.

Then we get into my problem area. My wife asked where I was running and when I'd be back - I said "Queen's Grant, and it's only 3-4 miles". Well, 5+ miles later...

Then yesterday I went out for what I thought might be 5-6 miles through the southern part of Stone Ridge. Nope, 7.6 miles. I think I'll just have to add 2 miles to every estimate that I don't meticulously measure via Map My Run or something like that.

Stone Ridge was my first run on the other side of Rt 2 EVER - I've biked over there a few times, but never run that way. Just the first of many...

I got a new Garmin late last week - an FR235 - which is very fun. More accurate than my old one (a 5 year old FR405CX) with many more bells and whistles - steps, heart rate, VO2 Max calculations, etc. It told me that I'd need 50+ hours to recover after my Queen's Grant run (I ran 24 hours later) and 72 hours after yesterday's Stone Ridge run (I'll probably run a short one today or tomorrow). I'm hoping those calculations are a result of my diminished aerobic capacity due to donating blood - it's supposed to take 16 weeks until my red blood cell count is all the way back to where it was before I donated - but I might just be oblivious to my true state of fitness :)

Here's the full map:

Cold for May...

Went out with an optimistic goal to knock off the remaining Hill and Harbor roads on Monday - I didn't want to leave anything untouched lest I need to revisit the 4 mile round trip just to cover 1/4 mile. Unfortunately, I didn't consider the length of the run required to cover the remaining roads - it turned out to be an 8 mile round trip. Probably something I could have handled on a normal day, but I donated blood the prior day - double red donation, no less - so I was struggling early and often. I think I probably walked a mile or more, but I achieved my goal - all of Hill and Harbor is DONE! I also knocked off a few streets on the east side of Post Rd in the area to really make sure I wouldn't have to run down Division in that direction again. I don't think my body has fully recovered from the cold yet - I caught a dry window, but the temp and wind was rough and I am still feeling the cold 3 days later.

Here's a look at the completed area in the northeast part of town.

Still a LARGE amount of area to cover, especially west of Rt 4, but the concentration of roads in this section of town is significantly greater than any other area of town, which makes me feel like I've made significant progress and gives me hope that I can achieve my goal as long as I can continue to run injury-free and add distance / endurance to my runs.

Lots of miles this week

Ran about 18 miles since my last post on Saturday, continuing to focus on the Hill and Harbor area in the northeast section of the town.

April 24 and 25 - finished the couple outstanding roads inside the Rt4 - Division - 1st Ave - Middle/Kenyon area. Also tried to knock off the 2nd - 6th Ave and Post - 5th St area but missed a "plus sign" in there. Unfair in my opinion because those "roads" are really parking lots or part of the OLM school property.

April 27 - longest run of the year at about 6.6 miles. Only about 30 ft of road plus a dangerous portion of Division left in the Kenyon / Middle - Division - Rt 4 triangle. Finished the "plus sign" near OLM that frustrated me earlier in the week. Also ran a long portion of road down near Blu, Finn's, and the town dump. Missed a couple side roads between London St and the train tracks, but luckily there's an access tunnel for pedestrians so I shouldn't have to take the longer route to get back to it.

Maybe 3-4 more runs until I've completed that entire section, assuming I don't inadvertently miss something - I'll admit that my best laid plans as I leave the house are sometimes a muddled mess by the time I've run the several miles to get to the roads and turns that I planned on making, so I'm sure I'll miss something somewhere.

I'm getting closer and closer to altering my approach - I'm SO SICK of running the same 2 mile stretch of Division and 1st Avenue (4 miles in total, 2 out and 2 back) in order to run a mile or 2 of new roads. However, if I give in now and allow myself to drive or bike to a closer starting point, I'll be eliminating a lot of the challenge, and the "stretch" portion of this goal will be moot. Still holding strong for now, though.

Still plugging along...

Been awhile since I posted... only gotten out 3 times in EG since my last entry, mainly due to school vacation week and a trip down to Pittsburgh. Progress continues even with the lost week while out of town.

April 11 - knocked off Main St and a couple other side streets on the return home. It's exactly 2 miles from my house to the corner of Division and Main St, for what it's worth...

April 14 - knocked off Division to the east and weaved a bit through the Hill and Harbor area. Still dreading the back-and-forth that will be required to hit all the little nooks and crannies down there, but it'll build up my endurance for the future ventures west of Rt 2.

April 23 - more progress in the Hill area, weaving back and forth from Friendship to 1st Ave. Accidentally ran up a school access road which threw off my pattern - I was hoping to hit Proctor but will have to loop back and get some dead ends and finish off Proctor in a future effort.

Broke the 5 mile barrier!

Longest run of the year so far - 5.21 miles - and knocked out some new territory. Toughest part of the run was definitely running up Division St from the First Ave split - quite a hill that I've run down before, but never up. Knocked out First Ave to Post to Cedar, then trickled through Dale Hill to close out a good portion. My tactics so far have been to make loops to stretch out my endurance, then circle back through the "back roads" as I return home. And I've been preferring my trail to get to Division over the long Cindy Ann exit to save mileage.

The northeast will fall soon!