Not Just a Run, but an Adventure

Wow. Sunday's long run was supposed to be 7 miles at an easy pace. Just enough to get me back on track. My previous longest run (before my injury) was 7 miles and I thought that it would be good enough to be back at that point with only 2 solid weeks back on the road.

So much for planning.

I ended up doing 11 miles. And although my legs are very sore this morning, I am encouraged by the following factors:

1. I took off at a reasonable pace and did not experience the drudgery that I usually experience in the first mile of a run.
2. As usual, I got my best splits on miles 2 and 3. Not sure why this is... probably the fact that I am warmed up and not yet fatigued gives me the best times for these two particular miles. Hopefully, with more training I will be able to extend the speed for these two miles into more miles early on.
3. I DID NOT hit the wall at the fourth mile like last week. While my pace slowed down a bit, it was still consistent and did not feel like the end of the world. I think the big difference is the fact that I got a good night's sleep last night (in contrast to last week when I barely got 4 hours of sleep before dragging myself out to do the infamous 5 miles noted in my previous post.

The adventurous part of this run was based on the fact that:

THE CONFEDERATE SHACK

At one point in my run I came across a house (shack really) with 6 or 7 confederate flags and a small building in the backyard that looked like an outhouse. Don't get my wrong, but I assume that these people and I do not share the same political philosophy.

THE MAD PIT BULLS:

I was still trying to get over the "Confederate Shack" when the pleasant tunes from my ipod were disturbed by the loud barking of two HUGE pit bulls running right at me. By the time I was cognizant, they were about 6 feet away. My instincts only allowed me to face the two of them, and basically "roar" at them. They stopped in their tracks. Now keep in mind that they had already crossed the street from their own property and this little drama was taking place in the middle of the street. The white pit bull immediately retreated, but the black pit bull stood in the middle of the street barking at me as I jogged off. Stupid dogs. My guess is that I will not run in this area again, however, I also think it would be a good idea to purchase a little spritzer of Mace. Just in case.

mace
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LOST IN SPACE:

At about 8 miles into my run I was hopelessly lost. I wanted to do a large loop which runs north and west of our house (into Forsyth County) but at one point realized that I was going North when I thought I was going South. Essentially, at 8 miles, when I was yearning to get back home I was running in the wrong direction. Thank goodness for my Garmin GPS watch. I was actually able to pull up a GPS map which showed me I was running in the wrong direction. I mad a Uturn, and I was back on my way.


Garmin 201
Posted by Hello

The Garmin Forerunner is a tool no runner should be without!

More to follow.