Saturday, December 29, 2007

Across Fox Island bridge and back

I wanted to go a tad farther today so I headed out to the Fox Island bridge. I wanted to see the bridge itself on the route when I uploaded the GPS data to the computer so I went across the bridge and back. Generally I don't like running on the bridge as there's only a narrow sidewalk on one side and the guard rails aren't very high.

It wasn't as cold out as yesterday... Actually looking at the current temp online, maybe it was. I found my other glove before the run though, so it didn't feel as cold I guess.

I put on the iPod and listened to three ultra runner interviews / race reports from Endurance Planet including one from one of the guys that got me interested in ultra running years ago, Stan Jensen He was one of the few nice folks I met in the Palo Alto Run Club a few years ago. For the most part the club seemed to have a collective ego problem but there were a few nice people who were regulars.

In any case, good run today. I went with the hand-held Ultimate Direction water bottle with the neoprene hand strap. I like the shape of the bottle, but I'm not a fan of the nozzle. They replaced the hard plastic standard water bottle nozzles with these stretchy silicone dealies that you have to pull out with your teeth. You can't just slurp water out of them like you can with a Camelbak nozzle either. You have to squeeze the bottle pretty good to get the water to flow. The opening in the nozzle is tight enough that the bottle can't suck air back in after you drink from it to return to it's normal shape so you have to squeeze the bottle with your hand(s) to get it to pop back into form. This seems like a bad choice by UD. Or maybe I'm just not using them correctly.

I was able to wear running shorts, loose running tights, a cotton T-shirt, and a long-sleeve poly-pro shirt over it with a nylon head cap for warmth (that went in my pocket 2 miles into the run) and thin gloves (pocketed 4 miles into the run). The cotton t-shirt should have been a wicking base-layer but I couldn't find one of mine in a pinch. For shorter runs cotton is okay as I don't have time to chafe.

My route:

Across Fox Island bridge and back at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:Share GPS tracks

I switched between running on the shoulder and on the road. My knee felt a little better when I was running on the road though. Possibly due to the stability of asphault vs. gravel, mud, and wet leaves. Knee feels okay right now, but I suspect it'll need ice and stretching later.

Just happy to get out there and run.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Now backwards!

Take a day off and try the same run again, only backwards...

Link to the route map

The Garmin had trouble locating satellites with the clouds and steady rain. It also had trouble finding my heart rate. Good to be out running, but not a very good run. I was still wary of knee pain so I took walking breaks every mile or so for 1-2 minutes. Ended up soaked and cold (37F out today) in the rain that was supposed to be 4" of snow.

Beats working, which I did for a good part of the morning.

I also tried out my water bottle carrier belt thing. It's made by Ultimate Direction. It's a waist pack that holds one water bottle and has a small pouch. Too soon to tell, but it wasn't that comfortable to run with. It sat in an uncomfortable position on my waist while sloshing around more than I'd like.

Good to get out and run though.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Here lives the talk about running

I'm going to keep my running ramblings here so that I can try out Blogger.com and see if I want to move my other blogs away from LJ. I wanted to split out the running talk from Grossklein now that I find that I'm really enjoying getting back into running again.

So here we go:

I did a run on Xmas day with a group of my wife's (mine too?) cousins. We just ran the "One Store Loop" around Gig Harbor. It's close, there are nice shoulders, traffic is fairly low, and there's an awesome (but short) section of trail to run up on the route. Add a mid-run snow shower yesterday and it's tough to beat.

Thanks to Santa (by which I mean a big sale at Amazon) I'm able to bring this run to you in two dimensions ala Google maps from my Garmin 305 which has a knack for keeping tabs on my position:

Link to the route


Good stuff.

My knee felt good during and after the run. The next day (today) it was a little bit stiff and sore when walking stairs (up or down) so I'm not out of the woods yet by a long shot. Time to ice and stretch before bed.

Thanks for reading and thanks to Watchout4snakes.com for help with the blog title.