Running the Hills and Trails in Macon

     I left for Macon, Ga Friday afternoon after work to visit my girlfriend and to do some hill training and get some elevation change. I visited once before last summer, but I didn't get a chance to run as much due to fear of hurting myself and procrastination of the hills. I've been running the Savannah Talmadge bridge once a week for about a month now and it wasn't enough hill training, I was also going to the gym and doing hill climbs on the treadmill, but nothing is better than running outside and feeling the weather and wind against your body. I have to say just from driving around Friday afternoon in Macon I was intimidated by some the hills, which are more like slopes going up and down different roads. These were the only  hills I have ever experienced, due to the fact I live in Savannah, Ga on an Island to where the elevation gain of my runs go from 4ft to sometimes 20ft according to my Garmin. The last 2 runs I have done started at 400ft and gained 740-760ft. (You can check my last 2 runs of 13.1 miles at the link I'll provide at the bottom of this blog.)  The feel of running up and down hills and roads that continue to keep going up and up is such a different feeling. It's more of a challenge to oneself to make it to the top without quitting. I will be honest and say it was a challenge for sure, There were moments indeed where I felt like I couldn't go anymore. On Saturday I ran 13.15 miles from my girlfriends apartment to downtown Macon around downtown and back. It was a great site, I've heard from many runners especially marathoners that the best way to see a new city is to run it. This is very true, you have a new territory to explore and just by thinking that I kept myself going, because you never knew what was around the corner. I found hills that were very steep and just decided to turn off route and charge up them. I found a beautiful cathedral that was on top of High Street and it was indeed a "High" street. I saw the entire cathedral from the downtown area so decided to make that my destination.
     After running for almost an hour and half I was getting pretty beat from using my energy to charge up random spots downtown. I had assumed I hadn't fueled properly and the fact that my Camelbak was almost empty and the water in it was extremely to warm to drink. It was making me more sick feeling trying to hydrate with hot water. (The body absorbs cold water faster and also produces a slight physiological cooling effect rather than drinking warm water.) I decided to pause my workout and walk a little downtown to try and find somewhere to get a cold bottle of Gatorade and water. This weekend in Macon was also the annual cherry blossom festival so downtown was packed with people and a lot of closed roads. It was hard trying to find my way around due to I was pretty much a tourist to this place and all the vendors at the festival were serving sodas and tea and the lines were to long to stand and wait. I decided after leaving the festival grounds if I find a main road there is bound to be a gas station or cafe close, well I was wrong! I had to stop and ask a police officer where I could get something to drink and he pointed me back to the festival and said there a lot of vendors serving sodas. I just said "thanks" and jogged back towards downtown when on the way I spotted a Greek flag hanging outside a cafe. I just saw the flag and thought it was a sign, joking with myself I figured why not go some Greeks and have them serve me some water and electrolytes. After buying a bottle of water and Sunny D I took my last Honey Stinger energy gel and started back home. It was very eventful run and I got to see a city that I've always heard isn't the greatest, But I enjoyed what it had to offer. Great hill climbs, nice trails, and beautiful scenery. Something different from my ordinary.
     The next day, Sunday, I decided to go for a trail run since the 50 mile endurance challenge I'll be doing is going to be on trails and I need the training. Luckily there was a 7 mile trail 3 miles from the apartments I was staying, So a 3 mile warm up would've been perfect. I ended up passing the turn for the road the trail was on, Thanks to my running "high". I ended up going 1.5 miles out of my way before telling myself  "I think I may have passed it?" I turned around and started running back at slow conserved pace so I would have energy for the trails. I finally found the road and the warm up ended up being 6 miles. I got to the entrance of the trail and stared up my camera so I could video tape the trail run and look back at it one day. This trail was very nice had a lot of climbs and vertical sections as well as downhill sections. I ran 5 miles of the trail and then popped back out on the road where I would run back home. I went out for an easy 10 and ended up doing another 13.11 miles. I feel great due to the fact I ran 2 half marathons in 2 days and at elevations I was not used to. If anything I have gained strength from these runs, which I know I have. The hills I experienced this weekend are nothing compared to what I will be running in October, but I am confident in my training and I will continue to run hills and do a lot of hill work at the gym until the weekend of the race. I am going for an easy 6 mile recovery this afternoon in Macon and will return to Savannah Tuesday to rest and then continue my training on Wed.

This is the results and map of Saturdays run- Saturday Long run in Macon
This is the results and map of Sundays run-  Sunday Long run in Macon (pig Trails)

Train Hard, Train Smart, Set Goals.

     This past weekend at the March of Dimes Shamrock Run 5K I took home a new PR of 20:28 and a 3rd place medal in my age group. I trained hard, put in the miles and achieved my goal I had set. This was my last race until May when I run 50 miles at the Relay for Life and training is going to be getting tougher. The 50 miles I will be running in May is going to be nothing compared to what I have in store for October at the North Face Gore-Tex 50miler in Atlanta. I was reading more about the race and the technicality of the trails and it's going to be tough run. It has a 4 out of 5 rating in overall difficulty and technical trails, but the scenery of the Appalachian trail is suppose to be the most memorable. I hope that's true, It would sure help take your mind elsewhere when running 50 miles. Here is a link to the the North Face Endurance Challenge Atlanta, Ga
     It's going to be a challenge for sure. Training runs are going to be getting longer, I'm going to have increase my calorie intake as well as my hydration, and I'll have to stay injury-free through all of this. I got a Garmin Forerunner 405 this past weekend and luckily got to use it at the 5K. This watch works really great and the charts and information you can get from it really helps you understand the training more. I also used it this past weekend for my long run and bridge run with the Striders and got to put it through more of a test. This week I'm increasing my mileage back up to 45 miles and will be going for 2 long runs a week one on the trails and one on the weekend with the Savannah Striders. I'll be doing hill work on the Savannah Bridge every Sunday and I will also be going to North Ga to work on more hill work at least once a month. I'm excited for the training, But the thought of only having 7 months to train before the 50 miles in Atlanta still gives me the chills. Along with the 50 miles in October, I will also have the Rock N Roll Savannah Marathon coming up 3 weeks after that run and I'm definitely doing it again this year to redeem my time of 5:30 last year. I ran the Rock N Roll Marathon with a broken hand and a cast on right arm last year. The doctor said he wouldn't advise that I run, but I wasn't letting a cast stop me. I had also taken 1 month off training prior due to pain meds and injuries before the marathon. So pretty much I had a crappy first marathon and need the redemption.
     So since the Tybee run Feb 3 I improved my speed, my distance and mental strength for the upcoming training. It's still going be tough, But since I've started with this blog I've had a lot of support from friends and some people I have never met before. That's one of the joys of being a runner, people you have never met read your stories and become inspired or motivated and that actually helps me keep a positive mindset and keep going with what I'm doing. I wouldn't ever let myself down and I would never want to let any followers down.

Here is what my schedule looks like so far..
May 4th- Relay for Life @ BC from 7pm-7am. I will be running 50 miles in under 12 hours.
I will take 3 weeks after this run to recover and drop my mileage to 25-30 until May 26th when I will run the Savannah Mile.
June 2nd- Survive the five...K on Isle of Hope
August 25th- XC kickoff 5K
August 26th- Half marathon Milestone
September 22nd- YMCA Heart of Savannah 5K
October 13th- The North Face Endurance Gore-Tex 50 Mile- Going for Sub 10 hours
November 3rd- Rock N Roll Savannah Marathon- Sub- 4:00

My Training & Running With A Group

     This Friday I will be running in the March of Dimes Shamrock run and will be going for an under 21 minute 5K. Last month in February I made 2 new PRs one being at the Tybee Run Fest North Beach Grill 5K with a time of 21:36 and the second PR at the Seacrest Race for The Preservation 10K with a time of 48:35. Since the Tybee run fest I wanted to up my training and add more mileage to get prepared for the  personal 50 mile challenge I will be doing on May 4th at the Relay for Life and the Gore-Tex 50mile in October. This week I am dropping my mileage to 25 so I can be well recovered for the 5K race on Friday. After the Shamrock run I will pick up my mileage again from I left off and continue to increase for 3 weeks then drop down for 1 week to recover. I've read about this type of training in Runners World magazine and always wanted to give it a try, So why not now as I prepare for Ultra Running where the miles go on and on. I also am starting to incorporate a track day where I will go to Savannah State University's track to work on Speed, I will be doing 100m sprints and 400m-1600m splits @ race pace. Along with the track days my dad and I once a week to every other week will be doing trail running of 10miles or more to get off the road and get away from the distractions of the city. I will need to be getting used to running trails more since most to all ultra marathons are done on trails. The more trail running I do the better I feel about competing on the trails, It works your body differently by strengthening the ankles and finding your balance. Living in Savannah there aren't many places to run trails, They have very few hiking trails, but they are only 3-5 miles long and  I don't like looping a trail. There is also the rails to trails on Tybee island which is 12 miles long, But the course is a long straight shot of soft uneven gravel for 6 miles and it tears up my ITB and I can't afford to have that problem again. Most of the trail runs will be at Tom Triplett park where they have a 6 mile MTB course with technical trails and there are different paths to choose from, So you can go and get lost for hours and then jump back on the main course and eventually find your way back.
     On May 4th 2012 I will be running my first 50 mile challenge at the Relay for Life. The event starts Friday at 7pm and ends at 7am Saturday morning.This run is something I've planned to do for myself, there are no prizes no awards no timing just a 400m track. It will be marking my 2 years and 1 month of running. I have already talked to a couple of friends from my running group, the Savannah Striders and they will gladly support me in this challenge by running some miles with me if not all. I joined the Savannah Striders a month ago and have found a new family, The people have been so welcoming and as like all runners very positive and supporting. I have been running Saturday mornings with the group on long runs and on Sundays we run the Savannah Bridge twice. The Savannah bridge run is known as the toughest bridge run in the South and we run it every Sunday for pleasure. If you run and are not part of a running team I would highly recommend finding one, Savannah Striders if you are in the Savannah area. I was always skeptical running with a group because I was still new at running and didn't want to feel intimidated. There are some fast people in the group, faster than me and there are slower people in the group. I've always said it doesn't matter if you run 45min 5K or 15min 5K you are a Runner and It's what YOU do. I couldn't be more pleased with my training now that I run with a group twice a week, It gives you something more to look foreword to than just going out alone sometimes. We all meet after the run for coffee and breakfast and chat with one another, We really are a family. I will be racing along with some fellow Striders this weekend and will have others cheering us on from the side. I will post back after my race another blog about my journey to becoming an Ultra runner and the people I am meeting along the way.

Hit the Trails for a Change

   I was reading the Trail Runner magazine earlier in the week and it made really think about how much greater running the trails are. Not only does it take away all the pounding of the knees you would regularly get from road running, You also get a more euphoric high when hitting the trails. 
                    Here is some good info from the article in TrailRunner Mag issue 65.
  "In a study published in the journal Cerebral Cortex in 2008, Dr. Henning Boecker of the University of Bonn, Germany, compared the endorphin levels of 10 endurance athletes before and after a two-hour run. Unsurprisingly, the athletes all had higher levels of mood-elevating brain endorphins post run, and reported feeling happier and more relaxed.
   However, during a road run, inhaling gas fumes, dodging traffic and pedestrians while avoiding dogs on long leashes can cause tension that may block the rush of happy hormones. Running trails, on the other hand, takes you into a calm-inducing natural environment. In fact, studies on children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)-a mental disorder that causes impulsiveness and an inability to focus-have shown that after walking just 20 minutes in a city park prior to taking a classroom test, they demonstrated better focus and scored higher than when they walked 20 minutes in a downtown or suburban setting. 

     These results suggest that time spent in nature-especially when combined with aerobic activity-has a powerful effect on your sense of well being and mental clarity. In fact, the mental engagement of navigating winding trails, adjusting your cadence over undulating grades, reading the landscape for your next foot placement and hearing only your rhythmic inhalations and exhalations has the power to clear your mind of external thoughts and worries. And regarding injury, the slightly higher chance you have of tripping and falling on a trail is more than compensated for by your reduced likelihood of developing a running-related overuse injury.
    On a road's firm, flat surface, each footstrike is identical, whereas on a trail that contact always differs, requiring engagement of stabilizing muscles in your hips and core for balance. This variety, along with a trail's softer, more forgiving surface, means less strain and fatigue that can lead to common injuries such as shin splints and knee pain"