20 miles: Battle of Franklin

I ran 20 miles this morning. It was chilly at the start and warm and sunny at the end of the run. I took in 3.4 liters of water, 540 calories (via 6 Hammer gels) and 4 endurolytes. I'm glad I left the gatorade at home for this run. I think I'll be skipping it for longer runs as I don't think it helps and might slightly hurt my speed.

My average pace was 10:33. This was my third of four twenty milers before the marathon. I've done each of these 20's with a faster average pace. I was trying to go a bit faster on this run and so I'm happy I was able to do so.

There were two battles during this run. The first was started by a barking medium size dog that ran across the street (around mile 1) and tried to bite me. He jumped at my arms twice trying for arm snack. Just as I was about to take off my backpack to use in defense I hear a door open at a different house, see a bigger dog running out and hear, "Go get him". I didn't really have time to think but that didn't sound good.

However, the bigger mastiff looking dog (I wasn't sure) was a hero dog. It ran straight at the other dog trying to get me and without barking or anything just knocked the 1st dog out of the way and chased it most of the way to its house. It then just jogged still without making a noise back to it's human friend. The guy just waved and I said, "thanks dog." and kept going.

The second battle was a recreation of the battle of Franklin from the civil war (around mile 4). There were a bunch of actors dressed up and just waking up in their tents and cooking morning chow. There was a sign to pay 5 bucks, but I didn't pay as I had no money with me. I was a bit worried being a yankee by birth but nobody shot at me as I ran by.

10 miles around the town

This morning I ran 10 around the town. I normally take Friday's off but my wife was able to stay home this morning to watch the boy so I ran outside. It's best I run when I can. I'll be taking Saturday off for Family time and then running my 20 miles Sunday morning.

It was a good run this morning. My average pace was 10:28 per mile which is about what I hope to run at the marathon. I did run out of energy (not winded) towards the end as I didn't eat anything after last night's 10 mile run and didn't eat much this morning before running. I took in 1.2 liters of water and 190 calories via gels.

10 Miles around the complex

I ran my 10 miles tonight after dinner. I probably should have waited a bit longer. It wasn't a bad run but I would give it a 7/10. It probably was good I didn't push it since I have to run another 10 and a 20 by Sunday.

I took in about 0.9 liters of water and 100 calories during the run.

5 treadmill miles (Wednesday)

Yesterday, I ran 5 miles on the treadmill. I was schedule for 10 outside but it was raining hard with thunder and lighting when I was able to run. I moved Thursday's 5 mile run to Wednesday and will do the 10 mile run outside tonight (Thursday).

I ran 1 mile at a 10:30 pace, the next mile at a 10:00 pace and then 2.5 miles at 9:30 pace. I backed off for the last half mile and ran it at a 10:30 pace again. I took in 1.2 liters of water.

4.8 treadmill miles

We lost our power at mile 4.8 (5 scheduled) for about ten minutes and I stopped waiting after 5 minutes. Anyway, ran 2 miles at 10:30, 1 at 10:00, 1 at 9:30 and 0.8 at 9 miles per mile. I took in 0.6 liters and zero calories.

It was a good run. Started slow but got warmed up after about 2 and felt good.

Up next: 10 miles tomorrow night around the complex.

12.1 miles in Amish country PA

I was back in PA for a high school reunion this weekend. Drank lots of beer and hung out with a Army/high school buddy so the diet and sleep took a back seat. It was fun. I did run Saturday as schedule in the morning somehow and had a good average pace for me (10:45) factoring in the beer, travel and poor diet.

I took in about 1 liter of water and 100 calories via one gel during the run. This run had many more hills than I normally run but that was good as I got to work on running up hills and got some good downhill speed in. I wanted to run 6 miles out and back but around mile 5 three Amish German shepherd mixes ran into the road ahead of me to claim it. I decided not to make their day and just turned around.

Photo: Above from mile marker 1 and below from around mile marker 2 on the map.

Weekend running

I will be not be able to update the website again until Sunday night but my weekend runs of 12 and 6 are still on.