Running in Hinckley

If you're not familiar with the Hinckley Reservation in the Cleveland Metroparks, let me just say that it is the opposite of flat. It's hilly. It's really hilly. It's also where I went Saturday to log some training miles. I enjoy going over there from time to time to get some good hill work in, but this week I went to log miles. 12 miles to be exact. And boy did the effort wear me out.

The Hinckley Reservation has a lovely 3 mile paved trail loop that runs around the lake which is the center-point of the park. All ups and downs. I've done a few 9 mile runs there before, but this was the longest run I have attempted there so far. 4 laps. 12 miles. The temperature was right around 80, with a mix of sun and clouds, and a decent breeze that would kick up every once in a while. Lap one felt really good. I charged up the hills and caught my breath at the top. Lap one was also the fastest lap of the quartet at 25:03.

I finished lap two in 26:25 as I was not attacking the hills as hard. I was also taking longer to recover from the uphill efforts. I was also starting to notice the heat more. Which is to say, I was sweating like a pig.

Lap three had a time of 27:58. While running the third lap, I kept thinking about how tired I was starting to get and that I still had one lap to go once I finished it. My left shin was bothering me from time to time and my left knee was acting up to, preventing me from going downhill as hard as I would have liked to. At one point I had to walk while drinking to prevent myself from choking on my Gatorade.

Lap four ended up being a bit faster than lap three at 27:26. Considering that I was hurting a bit and was drenched in sweat and was starting to see fuzzy little halos around everything, lap four wasn't that bad once I was into it. I've run longer and hurt much worse, so it didn't take too much to keep going. All in all a good distance training run for October.

As for the rest of this week, I have speed work tomorrow night and my second last duathlon of the year Sunday. That means no long run this week. I'm planning a 13 miler in two weeks. I just need to keep adding mileage until October. I think that if I can keep this up, I'll have a very good chance to shatter my goal of a sub 4 hour marathon in Columbus. As for my shin, it felt much better today. Maybe my body is learning how to cope with a little less down time than last year. I'm hoping to maintain two runs per week. Last year, I think I ran once a week for my marathon training. Any more and it just hurt too much. I'll just take things one week at a time.

Till next time,

Mr. P