Category Archives: My Running

07222018 – Run

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On tap this morning was a 2 x 5K with 10 minutes of rest in between.  It was a nice cool-ish morning.  Theodore Wirth Park was abuzz with activity getting ready for an Adventure Triathlon.  I decided that the 4-ish miles of new event trails would be a good place to run.  They were marked for the race, but I tried to be careful and not step on any of the flour markings!

The event trails are primarily mountain bike trails, but they will be good for running on as well. This was my first look at the Karate Monkey section of the trails and they were nice. This is the harder section of trail due to some tight turns.  There is one section called something Spaghetti and that is a few tight twisty turns. This will be a fun section to get out on and ride sometime soon.  I had ridden the Area 36 trails before and took the quick return route, today I took the longer route. It isn’t any harder, just longer and winds back in to the quick return.  My 10 minute break was in the Area 36 trails.  I walked about 5 minutes of it and jogged the last 5 minutes.

After the event trails, I still had a lot of miles left so I ran down and cross Hwy 55 and ran the prairie loop I usually skip just northwest of the lake. I was basically trying to get as close to home as possible but still giving myself some cool down time.  It ended up working out pretty well.

The two 5K times were: 30:03 (9:42) and 28:35 (9:13).  Total mileage was 8.38 in 1:26 (10:16).

This picture is on one of the event trails.

07192018 – Run

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I made a mistake when ordering something from Lowe’s.  Lowe’s isn’t super close to our house, but we get Discover Cash Back Reward cards for it, so that makes sense.  Instead of having the order delivered to Maple Grove where we usually go, it got delivered to West St. Paul.  It isn’t a huge difference in time to get to West Saint Paul, but it seems a lot further away. I was able to incorporate my visit there with a run at a new location.

Battle Creek Regional Park is a place that the kids and I visited once, but didn’t spend a ton of time at. It has some Mountain Bike and Cross Country Ski trails so I decided to go for my run there. Not having been there before I did some research and found this blog that offered a route to run. I read through their route once and proceeded to go for my run.  It didn’t make a ton of sense, but some of the parts stuck out to me as I started running.


The workout was 6×800.  I didn’t want to start my run by going up the sledding hill, so I made some random turns here and there in the “flat” section of the ski trails. I ended up going past the same point a few times once I entered the wooded area.  It was also hard to know if the single track I was on were Mountain Bike or hiking trail.  The ground was dry and I never saw any bikers, so it wasn’t a big deal.  Everything make more sense now having been there. I only made one real mistake and ended up on a dead end trail on private property.  The only other real error was during the cool-down I almost went on a long loop away from the parking lot. I wasn’t too worried about getting lost or anything as long as I got my workout in.

I never saw the view from the Bluff of downtown St. Paul, but I did see some cool views of the Mississippi River. There were plenty of hills on this one so the intervals really depended on whether it was more up or down!

4:39

3:41

4:44

3:50

4:50

6:12 (this one was uphill, I ran into the dead-end and almost vomited up a bug that flew into my mouth)

The total was 5.5 mile in 1:02.

This picture is from when the kids and I were there:

07172018 – Run

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Oh my gosh… this morning was great weather for running! Wow, what a change.  It was 66 with no humidity! Ah..

On the calendar for today was 6x400m with 300m easy in between. Eduardo and I ran the section North of the Luce Line trail, it was his first time really exploring this section.  To make it a little easier we ran to Schaper Park and did two intervals on the paved trail there. There are definitely ways to keep it all on the trails at Wirth, but it was easier this way so no one got lost! It was nice coming back and not being totally drenched in sweat! The first interval started on the uphill and the second one started on the steep downhill with broken steps. It was bad enough that my watch auto-paused while going down the steps.  Then interval 3 & 4 were on the paved trail at Schaper.  The last two were just in the park with nothing too exciting about them.  I guess the last one had then downhill that was uphill on the first.

Here are the intervals:

2:22

2:20

1:33

1:28

1:54

1:38

Total 3.88 miles in 47:35.

Last night I stubbed my little toes on a step-stool in the kitchen.  It was a little tender getting into my shoes this morning.  I iced it when I got back and now looking at it, it looks really red.  Ugh, hopefully not a big issue.

07142018 – Run

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The fog in the valley as I started my run at Hyland Regional park was beautiful. I was grateful to get the chance to run somewhere different this morning. I love running at Wirth, but it does get a little repetitive to run the same trails, even in different configurations.

It has been several years since I’ve been at Hyland to run so I made some mistakes on the route. It became more of an out and back and less of a loop, but that’s ok. The route I took actually was perfect for my 10k Time Trial. I didn’t hit the ski hill which I should do for Moose Mountain training, but there were plenty of hills throughout.

I started and ended at almost exactly the same spot. It was a cooler morning with temps in the 60’s bit the dew point and humidity were both up there. I definitely need to start carrying fluids on the long runs now. I stopped at a water fountain and a pit toilet!

My overall pacing wasn’t what I was hoping for.  I did the 10K Time Trial in 55:39 which is 8:58 pace.

07122018 – Run

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Hot and horribly muggy plus a side of tired legs made for a rough run this morning.  It was like 79 when I started my run with a similar % of humidy and dew point of 67.  So yea, pretty swampy way to start the morning off!  Plus I was feel some leg fatigue from CrossFit and pulling my entourage of a trail-behind and Chariot behind my bike.

As I started out I wasn’t sure what would happen.  But as usually happens my legs loosened up as I ran.  I just decided that I would do what I can for the 5×800 intervals.  I usually would jog the 400m rest between, but today I walked most of them.  I saw a new path that had been mowed into the first meadow so I took it.  The mowing stopped, but I saw a single-track and that eventually ended in a briar patch.  Oops… I was able to bushwhack my way out of it, but why did they mow that trail and not some of the others that are overgrown?  Besides that the run was pretty ordinary.  I went around the goat enclosure, but didn’t see any of them this morning.

For those keeping score here are the intervals:

5:54

5:11

4:19

4:47

4:46

 

Today’s total was  5.43 miles in 1:03:55.  I think we are driving to swim lessons today instead of riding!