Training Log - Saturday, April 2, 2011

Richard and I hadn't been running together lately and my mileage had been way down over the past two weeks as well, so we decided it was time for a fun long run again. We were going to do a 13 mile trail and road run followed by a local 8K race to get about 18 miles for the day. We ended up otping out of the 8K race and just completed the half marathon distance, instead. We met up at Richard's house at 6AM to complete our run at the 8K race start by 8:30 AM in time to register and rest for a few minutes. When headed up Bankhead Parkway to the Tollgate trailhead. After close to a mile, we took the High Trail connection to cut across the side of Monte Sano mountain until we would reconnect with Bankhead Parkway near Governor's drive. After we crossed Governor's drive, we entered a gated community atop Monte Sano Mountain and continued through it until we reached the powercut section that would take us down the mountain towards another neighborhood and ultimately Drake Avenue.

We continued on until we connected with a section of the Rocket City Marathon course. Once we reached Huntsville Hospital, we cut through some parking lots to arrive at Huntsville Middle School just in time to register for the race. However, once we arrived, both Richard and I felt that we really didn't feel like we had the energy to run another 5 miles at a reasonable pace. Instead, we decided to head straight back to his house for another mile for a total of 13 miles for the day. It was a great day for running. Temps were in the low 40s when we started the run. As a result, I was way overdressed by the time temps heated up just an hour later. I ended up shoving my gloves and beanie into the waistband of my shorts. Later during the run, I had to wrap my fleece top around my waist as well. A pack might have been a reasonable option for this run. The run included about 7 miles of trail running and about 1500 feet of elevation change, not too bad. But I really plan to crank up the mileage and hill running next week. After all, two weeks from now, SweetH2O is on my calendar.