I have not had much down time in the first few months of the racing season with three marathons, a half-marathon, and some shorter distance races to fill the gaps, and the most demanding month is still to come. In less than two weeks, I have the Buckeye Trail 50k , followed by the Burning River 100 Mile Endurance Race two weeks later. I am just trying to stay healthy and avoid an injury.Seattle was the most difficult road marathon course I have run, and the compounded effects of Boston, Cleveland, and Seattle over a two month span have me feeling less than 100%. The week after Seattle was filled with mostly slow paced recovery runs in the 8 mile range. I did get a sloggy trail run of about 8.5 miles on Thursday, but other wise only easy runs until Sunday. The Sunday run with the SERC group was the first time I did anything that caused me to push. I ran a nice 12 miler at a 7:29 pace.
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On Tuesday and Wednesday in Seattle, I ran in the Mercer Slough Nature Park, a small by beautiful preserve which includes wetlands and a blueberry farm. I found that I could run about 7 miles without repeating any trails. Here are a few photos.
Since the park was largely in a slough area, there were some areas where boardwalks were required.
This is an abandoned house that was just off the trail. It is in the swamp, filled with water.
The flora and fauna were different that I am used to in Ohio. There were quite a few of these leafy plants, but I do not know what they are called. I did see a variety of birds, including lots of Cedar Waxwings that seem to have been attracted by the berries.
2 comments:
Frank: Please don't run the BT50K too aggressively as it's just 2 weeks before the BR100. For Mohican, I started tapering three weeks out (just a 17% drop three weeks out). For the BR100 you are going to need every ounce of strength you have and will need to be 100%. This being your first 100, ideally you probably shouldn't run the BT50K (especially as you've raced three marathons this spring and summer) but if you do go easy and make it a Saturday morning training run. Don't wear race gear--look like a guy on a training run. - Wyatt
Thanks Wyatt. As you say, I am not going it hard, but I am going to run it. Because of the way my racing season has been going so far, I will not be 100% going into Burning River. Hopefully, if I run BT50k moderately, and don't do anything too crazy in the next three weeks, I should be OK.
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