Tag: Pinellas Trail

11/24/24

Ok so I ran 10 miles this morning. Got a late start because the cool weather made me wanna stay warm inside. It wasn’t that cool. I left at 9:30 or so. Pinellas Trail. Out and back. Nothing new. I am so tired of all the places to run here. I swear. It’s like that everywhere I’m sure. Just running alone and seeing the same stuff every time. It makes me a little sad. Mostly bored though. And it makes me want to run somewhere else. 10 miles. No pee. 9:30 pace. I haven’t run since the hill repeats I did in Greenville. That was intense. My legs were tired the next few days and I wanted to do nothing, so those things together, I just relaxed for three days. Which probably helped me have a good day out there today. I’m wearing the Ghost Max right now for long runs and recovery runs. Pillows. But not unstable like other pillows, for me anyway. 

Running was less of a priority on the small mini moon honeymoon than I expected it to be. At first I had anxiety about wanting, or feeling like I needed to run a certain amount, like every day of the trip. Which is silly, and I figure out that it is silly pretty early on. So I adjust by waiting for the moment to seem right for me to leave and you know, just paying attention to what’s important, actually important. It’s like that on every trip though. Expectations and reality are not the same most of the time, not in a bad way. In a way that is reality. That being said probably unnecessarily, I did run on the Swamp Rabbit trail the first morning we were there. As far as rail trails go, this trail has to be the nicest one I’ve seen/run on. Similar to the B-line in Bloomington as far as scenic goes. Both are beautiful in the fall, I can say with experience. I started at the softball fields of Furman University. They were practicing so I heard the bat hitting the ball. I saw many people running and walking and cycling on the trail, but not so many that it was a distraction. I noticed that waving to fellow runners was not popular. There was a definite grade to the trail at all times, either up or down, where I got on anyway. Nothing crazy, but at times it was about three percent I’d say. But for a quarter mile, sometimes longer. I ran 6 miles that day. The temperature was around 50 and it was windy, but the trail was flanked by trees most of the way, so I didn’t feel much wind. Wore the Rides that day, and they stunk up Taynisha’s trunk on the way back. Oh, before that I ran in Savannah when we stayed there on the way up. From our hotel, Forsyth Park was like half a mile or something, so since I don’t know my way around there, I treated that park like it was Crescent Lake. To my delight there were other runners doing the same thing. I remember that run because I had to pee so bad on the last loop at the park, I just let it go. Sorry for saying the truth but sometimes it is not a choice. The body needs. That was a 3 mile run, or so. I drank too much coffee the entire trip. 

But wow Greenville was nice. The place we stayed was where we spent most of our time. We didn’t want to leave because it was so private, intimate, pretty, everything we wanted. The photo is from our place there. When I mentioned hill repeats earlier, our place was at the bottom of a quite steep hill. From bottom to top it was about 45 feet. Part of it was stairs. Part gravel road. Part grass. I did 18 reps in 30 minutes, with short rests in between, and 10 pushups each time 10 minutes had elapsed, so thirty total. More of a rest than anything, the pushups, though they kept my heart rate up between reps, and that’s good. So that’s all the running out of the way I think. But obviously not the biggest news in my life right now. 

Taynisha and I are married now. Our wedding day was one of, if not the best, days of my life. So much positivity, and all of it was like, not manufactured. Just pure joy, as unlikely as that is for me to say in seriousness. And I’m not mocking the experience or anything like that. It was surprising to me to feel such a high level of happiness for that duration of time, is like the best way I can say it. There were no hitches in any part of the planning, which I’m told is unusual. We both said our vows without losing it too badly. Trey was just amazing with his words, as expected and as always. It was such a pleasure to have him there. Myke was my guy the whole day, if I needed anything. He made me cry too. Everyone made me cry with all the things they said. But I never bawled. I kept it tight. That morning Myke and I ran on the Riverwalk. The reception was wonderful. The band was better than we imagined. Just a dream of a day. The best part is now Taynisha and I are married. It feels the same, but different. In a great way. 

8/18/24

Sunday long run was a thing today. I’ve been trying to run 10 miles on a Sunday for like two months now without success. Heat just unbearable until this last week. The humidity dropped a little I guess. Also, I’ve increased mileage in the past few weeks, running more slowly and focusing on form. I don’t really ever worry about pace anymore, but if I don’t pay attention, I will gradually run faster and faster, maybe to get it over with I guess. This happens during after-work runs. And the next morning I wake up and my legs hurt, then I walk 12-13 miles. I don’t like that. My form gets out of whack doing that, as well. So focusing on form and basically just doing zone 2, with a little tempo thrown in when I feel like it. I’m not trying overdo it at this point. I’m feeling my age now. Saving what I got left you know. I still would like to do another 100, which is a realization I’ve come to after learning of the Tampa 100. But that got me thinking about like, I don’t have to do that one. There are so many out there. It would be cool to do that one however, because it covers this whole area, and I’ve done the PTC so I could claim both of those, being a “local.” Sad to say I am a local.

But the run though. 10 miles out and back on the Pinellas Trail. I wore Saucony Triumphs. I had Maurten 160 in my bottle. I took and ate a whole pack of Skratch Labs Sour Cherry. Peed at mile 3.75. Sweating was profuse from mile 4 to 8. Pace was let’s say 10. Had a good time. I started using LMNT during work and have seen my sneaky debilitating cramps go away. So I use that for recovery. And I had a coffee later. Ate pisto for dinner, in honor of the Vuelta, same as last night. There was so much. We finished it. It’s gone. I am gone too, I am tired.

I should not make any promises about how often I will write here, because I cannot keep them. I can say that I will try. Wedding is soon. Bachelor trip sooner. Good night.

1/31/24

Last year I made one post. That’s not enough. No one asked but I maybe will try to make one post a month this year. Seems doable but here I am on the last day, of the first month.

We just got back from Daytona for the Rolex 24. This was our third consecutive year. (The cars turn right in this race if you’re unfamiliar.) The beach and beachfront structures, mostly hotels, are still being repaired from damage caused by the hurricane 1-2 combo in 2022, which affected the 100 I did. Like I said, one post last year so it’s not a very lengthy scroll down if you wanna read about that. While we were there this past weekend I ran twice on A1A, and was reminded of how annoying and potentially painful that can be, on that stretch anyway. There are long, extremely long curb inlets that are slanted at what is about forty-five degrees. Sucks for the legs, but I did 5 mile out and back, both runs. Crazy how much running early in the day improves my ability to sit still. Our first stint at the race on Saturday was about five and a half hours.

More about running. I don’t know if I said it last time, and if I did, maybe I’ll say it better this time. Since the 100, I haven’t trained for anything. I’m running how much and how fast/medium/slow I want to. Like whatever feels right on that day. Maybe not running at all. But probably running. And I find that following that path leaves me feeling the way I want to feel, physically. I’ve been running 30-40 miles a week consistently, for about 6 months if not longer. If I think about where this leaves me fitness-wise, it’s hard to know for sure, but I feel stronger than I ever did in that long training cycle leading up to the 100. I know that the deep fatigue I experienced then was necessary for me to adapt but damn. It’s got me thinking about changing up my training next go around. Maybe not doing so many super long runs. I feel like the return on investment from a 24 mile run is low, especially when it’s followed by a 14 mile run. Just an example but again, damn, that’s a lot of wear and tear. I do enough walking at work. I feel like when I run I should only run. Stringbean says just get into the best shape you can, regardless of pace or whatever. Obviously I’m paraphrasing. I’m also kind of losing focus with this subject right now. Next time I train for something I will try something new. There is my vague declaration.

I ran 11 miles this morning on the trail. Nice weather here still. It will get hot soon, though. I bought some GU liquid energy recently. They are fine. I used one before and one during. Again fine. Today I was just running and thinking. Listening to music, but not thinking about the music, more thinking about life stuff. And those are always the best runs for me. Because I’m not thinking about running and that makes running automatic, easy, in the background. A nice morning.

5/24/20

I got my new vest and new headphones this week. Ran with the new headphones on Friday, and was pretty happy overall. Jabra headphones don’t mess around when it comes to bass. That Friday run was a half hour after work thing, just relaxing and cruising. Today I ran 15 at 11:00 minutes a mile with the new vest. I’m very happy with the choice I made. No more bruised ribs. Just have to get used to pocket placement but no big deal.

A theme at work for me this week was just to stop caring. Not about the quality of work I do, but about the little, annoying, extraneous things that I can make too much of. It’s like I want to have a fistfight with time — the concept, or construct, or very real thing which rules many (most) people’s lives including mine — over not being home earlier. I can’t care about it when I’m at work because it makes me super anxious, like wound up tight, and it’s another challenge in itself to get unwound. So maybe not such a little extraneous thing, but annoying to be sure. And things plural I said. I love my job because of the people I get to talk to. That’s one reason. But sometimes my interactions while working are very difficult to process. I take it to heart when someone displays even the slightest amount of negativity towards me and/or the quality of my work. That Abraham Lincoln quote though, especially with over 600 people to please. What running blog? This is about work today.

Continue reading “5/24/20”

6/10/18

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I think I will always be a trail runner first. Then a runner.

I lost the concept of time today out there. I forgot about the job search. I got rid of all the bullshit. Yeah, this happens when I run at home, just not to this degree. I’ve been reading Run Gently Out There by John Morelock, and it’s all I can do to stop myself from emulating Morelock’s style and voice right now. Not only would I fail at his game of botany, ornithology, phenology (a word I learned from him), and poetic prose as one stream of thought, I would be betraying my own style and voice (still in development stages). So, this is turning out to be a paragraph about writing rather than running. And that’s good. Because, I can only use my own two feet to run, as much as I pretend I can run as fast as someone else or as far as someone else. And, I can only use my own words and my own voice to write, all the time keeping in mind those who influence me and inspire me. Right now, everything running and writing is all mixed and tangled together. Like it should be.

I started on the wrong trail. I realized I was on the wrong trail after three minutes, when I didn’t see any white blazes. I’m lucky it only took me three minutes. I backtracked to the trailhead for a clean start and pledged to keep an eye out for white blazes from then on. Continue reading “6/10/18”

5/26/18

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After the run today, instead of getting directly into a cold shower, I went out on the back porch and just sat in the rain. It was a slow, relaxing rain at first, but then the Ice Cream Truck came by playing its song, and this was somehow dramatic, a cue to the rain for more intensity. As the music faded, the rain seemed to slow. Then the wind started blowing harder, and the little palm by the big oak tree started thrashing. For a moment after all this had happened, was still happening, I looked down at the pavers under my feet and just observed the rain drops coming down. So peaceful. And the skies then opened up and poured out the last big bucket of rain for that hour. Continue reading “5/26/18”

5/16/18

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I am exhausted. I waited until 11:30 to go running today because I had to wait for the maintenance guy to get here. He’s still not here, but that’s another story. I’m so tired because I went hard yesterday and today it was just gross outside. It was sprinkling at first so it was easy to feel like I wouldn’t overheat. It stopped, though, and it got sticky, gross and hot. I ran the first 6 miles and had to run/walk the last 4. Overall, 10 miles at 9:50 pace. Continue reading “5/16/18”

5/9/18

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Continuing from yesterday’s entry, I did indeed purchase a personal ($4/month) WordPress site plan. It came with a domain name that doesn’t include .wordpress, which was the only selling point, honestly. I’ll probably be messing around trying to figure out how to use it for a while. I’d like to create something that looks halfway decent, as I’m not trying to showcase my design skills, or lack thereof, but when I look at this site, I want to be invited in by something visually appealing at least. It’s something to work towards for sure. And it’ll get me taking more photos.

Today’s run was good. I usually do what I call a tempo run on Wednesdays. Maybe other people have different definitions of tempo run, but mine is a half mile warm-up of just easy running, not super slow, but a pace I’m able to talk through easily, then at least half an hour of slightly uncomfortable pace. I’ve been doing 8 miles on Wednesdays for the past month and today was no exception. Overall, I went 8 miles at 8:21 pace, negative splitting. I probably could have pushed more in the beginning of the run, but after this past weekend, I wanted to finish strong rather than burn out. I wore Lunartempo 2s. No water bottle. No dehydration today, most likely because I got out before the sun was really baking. Continue reading “5/9/18”