ADK Run

I was happy to have a new route to run this past Saturday, for the second weekend in a row. I went from the beach to the mountains, as we were visiting Mike's Mom for the weekend at their home in the Adirondacks. Usually when I run up there, it's in a state campground along the lake next to the house. I like it because it's woodsy, hilly, and beautiful. Although sometimes I get spooked that a bear is going to come charging out of the woods to eat me, and campfire smoke isn't the greatest when you're sucking in air, but if I get the chance to run, I go.

I planned a ten mile run on Saturday, it looked like it was going to rain for a while, so I tested my favorite theory, if you want the sun to come out, leave the sunglasses at home. And it worked. This was the first time I was bringing water on a long run, as well as a Clif Shot Gel in raspberry. Usually after six miles I'm ready for water, and this was only the second time I brought gel on a run, I'm testing out how they work on my stomach, and so far so good. I think it's funny how all the times I've done long runs, (Boilermaker, my half marathon) I've made due with Powerade and water. So this is a new ballgame for me.

Mike drove me to the bottom of their street, which is a steep hill, I would have blown out my legs before I had even started if I ran down to the main road. I've walked down, as well as up (one night I walked home with Jeannine from the bar....but that's another story) but running is different. Off I went, right away I saw I was running an 8:50 pace, so I slowed down to a 10 minute mile. Went through town, and onto a bike path, it was hot when the sun came out, but the breeze did a great job of keeping me cool.

I got to the point where I planned to turn around, at a Donut shop that has THE BEST sugar and plain donuts. Kept sipping my water, and when I had hills, I ran them around an 11:30 minute pace. I planned on taking the energy gel at mile six, and the next time I checked G-Unit, it was 6.3 miles in. So I sucked it down, the flavor was decent, but I wasn't thrilled with how warm it was. At the eight mile mark I saw Mike coming down the road in the Jeep, I told him I had two miles left, so I ran up to the golf course and back to finish it off. Ended with a 1:45 for 10 miles. Averaged a 10:16 pace, which I was happy with, because even after the hills, I had energy left, and my stomach didn't explode from the gel.

My next race is the Boilermaker, it's a month away and I'm planning on being better about my diet until then. I've been "splurging" a bit too much lately, especially since Mike came home with pretzel M&M's. As if I needed a new chocolate candy to covet. I'm also going to start taking Isotonix this week, the multi-vitamin and opc-3. Mike's co-worker gave me a bottle of each to try out, he swears by it so we'll see how that goes.

Note my pathetic attempt at including an elevation chart of my run from Garmin. Mike did something with my laptop security settings last weekend, so I resorted to putting it in as a photo. Along with a photo of the two of us last night after dinner, right before I fell asleep with Eliza in her bed at 9:30. Yup, it was a wild Saturday night in the Adirondacks.