Training Log - Monday, August 23, 2010

The alarms went off at 4:20AM this morning. Unfortunately, I had already woken up at 3:45AM, struggling to go back to sleep. Once I did the alarm went off. Welcome to Monday mornings. I met up with Richard and James at 5AM at Richard's house on Pratt Ave at the bottom of Monte Sano Mountain. Today's training run called for a run up Bankhead Parkway and Tollgate Trail, all the way up to the ranger station at the state park. Once we got there, we would have a chance to refill our bottles and bladders before turning around to run the same trail course back down, for a total of close to 10 miles. While I was feeling pretty good, even with the soccer game I played last night, Richard was experiencing heavy legs. However, we still made a pretty good time for this run. The one thing I noticed is that the temps were much lower this morning than in a long time. The humidity was still up there, but you could actually feel a cool breeze at some sections of the trail near the top of the mountain. Once we got to the top of the mountain, we had an absolutely exceptional view of the sunrise and we were not quite able to have the camera do it justice (see picture below, courtesy of James Duncan).

I ran with two handheld bottles instead of the usual hydration bladder and that setup worked pretty well for me. I had plenty of fluids for the way up, refilled on top, and used that on the way down. While I used up all fluids towards the end of each section, I was never thirsty or feeling dehydrated. Granted, it was only 10 miles, but the humidity really takes the liquids right out of you via sweat. The Flyroc 310s felt pretty good as well and telling from Richard's assessment while he was running behind me, my gait looked much better when compared to my Laurel Valley adventure in the old Roclite 295s. BTW, I actually removed my Superfeet Green insoles and replaced them with the standard Inov8 insoles that came with the shoes. My thinking is that it might allow for a better/more snug fit around the heels if I use the insoles that were made for this shoe. According to Richard, I was actuall running on the heels of my shoes instead of "next" to them as I did at LV. The wear seems to be more centralized as well with a lot less "overpronation signs" on the shoes. So far so good. I am going to rotate the Roclite 312 GTX into the mix once the weather gets a little cooler and we get more rain. I really need to go for a long trail run before I make the final call on the Flyrocs, but they felt pretty good.