Sunday afternoon
14.19 miles / 23 km
64F
After missing my Saturday long run, I decided to try a long-run route I've been thinking about for a long time:
From my office (C on the map) I drove down to the river and parked (A on the map) where Summit Avenue, a grand old avenue lined with beautiful homes, begins its way towards St. Paul Cathedral close to downtown St. Paul. My lower leg had felt tight all morning, so I was a little nervous. I had to pick up some fish and other dinner supplies on the way home, so I had a timeline for finishing what would be my longest run to date. If I had to bail on this better-than-half marathon and walk back, I'd catch heck from the better half.
For the first four miles heading straight east up Summit Avenue, I put on my Salif Keita Pandora station. The joyful African pop was the perfect accompaniment for the beautiful early fall afternoon, with its ideal running temp, and a fair amount of people out on the sidewalk enjoying the weather, even though the Vikes game was on.
Summit avenue is a gradual incline. Then after four miles you reach a bluff close to downtown St. Paul. From there Summit veers left and continues to St. Paul Cathedral, but I went straight and descended down Grand Avenue to almost river-level. At the river I was just shy of the five-mile mark, ready to follow the semi-circle the river describes back to my car. I stopped for a quick preventive stretch, turned off the music, and stashed away my ear buds and point-n-shoot camera. My legs felt good, time to get down to business.
The asphalt on Shepard Road's bike/pedestrian path (this is where I was supposed to have run the half with Dutchie in August) was a little rough but pretty easy. I was able to maintain a 9:40-10:20 mm pace throughout most of the run. After seven miles, however, my calves started to tighten up. Sh!t, just what I suspected would happen. I really should've stretched and massaged my legs on my off-day Saturday. So I stopped for another quick stretch on a high handrail over a bridge and kneaded my calves good with my thumb and index finger. That did a lot of good.
Shepard road doesn't really afford very good views of the river after the downtown area. It's set up a bit away from it, next to a semi-busy road with houses up on a mini-bluff behind it. So mostly I just saw endless vegetation with the occasional glimpse of the river below on my left, and annoying traffic noise to my right.
At the 10-mile mark Shepard Road turned into the River Road and headed north. At that point I knew I was home-free, even though I was starting to feel fatigued. I stopped for another quick stretch and calf-massage, and then again a few miles further on. For the last two miles I really felt like stopping to walk, but I was already behind schedule for picking up the Bronzini, so I kept on. I didn't feel any focused strain in any of the trouble spots, like the ITB above the knee, so I felt reasonably confident I wasn't risking injury by ignoring my policy of never running fatigued. The strain/fatigue was more generalized.
Once I got to the 14-mile mark, I ran the last .2 miles at 8mm pace back to the car (B). Man, did that feel good. Hopefully someday I'll be able to do that pace for an entire long run.
So, overall, a pretty good run, although I really don't like running when I get tired like that. I guess that's the way ultra runners do it all the time. I think with better pre-run prep and maybe better hydration it would've been more fun, but it's nice to know I can run that distance. Not too long ago I wouldn't have thought it possible. It would've been interesting to see how much farther I could've gone. I kind of got into a zone towards the end, and felt like I could've kept on going if I had to.
On this morning's one-mile run-commute my legs felt fairly stiff, but not too bad considering. No soreness in the knees or anything like that. Morning temp around 43F--the cool surface felt great after yesterday's run. Looking forward to another week of running.
Here's some pics:
14.19 miles / 23 km
64F
After missing my Saturday long run, I decided to try a long-run route I've been thinking about for a long time:
From my office (C on the map) I drove down to the river and parked (A on the map) where Summit Avenue, a grand old avenue lined with beautiful homes, begins its way towards St. Paul Cathedral close to downtown St. Paul. My lower leg had felt tight all morning, so I was a little nervous. I had to pick up some fish and other dinner supplies on the way home, so I had a timeline for finishing what would be my longest run to date. If I had to bail on this better-than-half marathon and walk back, I'd catch heck from the better half.
For the first four miles heading straight east up Summit Avenue, I put on my Salif Keita Pandora station. The joyful African pop was the perfect accompaniment for the beautiful early fall afternoon, with its ideal running temp, and a fair amount of people out on the sidewalk enjoying the weather, even though the Vikes game was on.
Summit avenue is a gradual incline. Then after four miles you reach a bluff close to downtown St. Paul. From there Summit veers left and continues to St. Paul Cathedral, but I went straight and descended down Grand Avenue to almost river-level. At the river I was just shy of the five-mile mark, ready to follow the semi-circle the river describes back to my car. I stopped for a quick preventive stretch, turned off the music, and stashed away my ear buds and point-n-shoot camera. My legs felt good, time to get down to business.
The asphalt on Shepard Road's bike/pedestrian path (this is where I was supposed to have run the half with Dutchie in August) was a little rough but pretty easy. I was able to maintain a 9:40-10:20 mm pace throughout most of the run. After seven miles, however, my calves started to tighten up. Sh!t, just what I suspected would happen. I really should've stretched and massaged my legs on my off-day Saturday. So I stopped for another quick stretch on a high handrail over a bridge and kneaded my calves good with my thumb and index finger. That did a lot of good.
Shepard road doesn't really afford very good views of the river after the downtown area. It's set up a bit away from it, next to a semi-busy road with houses up on a mini-bluff behind it. So mostly I just saw endless vegetation with the occasional glimpse of the river below on my left, and annoying traffic noise to my right.
At the 10-mile mark Shepard Road turned into the River Road and headed north. At that point I knew I was home-free, even though I was starting to feel fatigued. I stopped for another quick stretch and calf-massage, and then again a few miles further on. For the last two miles I really felt like stopping to walk, but I was already behind schedule for picking up the Bronzini, so I kept on. I didn't feel any focused strain in any of the trouble spots, like the ITB above the knee, so I felt reasonably confident I wasn't risking injury by ignoring my policy of never running fatigued. The strain/fatigue was more generalized.
Once I got to the 14-mile mark, I ran the last .2 miles at 8mm pace back to the car (B). Man, did that feel good. Hopefully someday I'll be able to do that pace for an entire long run.
So, overall, a pretty good run, although I really don't like running when I get tired like that. I guess that's the way ultra runners do it all the time. I think with better pre-run prep and maybe better hydration it would've been more fun, but it's nice to know I can run that distance. Not too long ago I wouldn't have thought it possible. It would've been interesting to see how much farther I could've gone. I kind of got into a zone towards the end, and felt like I could've kept on going if I had to.
On this morning's one-mile run-commute my legs felt fairly stiff, but not too bad considering. No soreness in the knees or anything like that. Morning temp around 43F--the cool surface felt great after yesterday's run. Looking forward to another week of running.
Here's some pics:
Attachments
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13.09.15 14-miler 1--Summit & Lexington.jpg205.3 KB · Views: 7
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13.09.15 14-miler 2--free books.jpg261 KB · Views: 7
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13.09.15 14-miler 3--looking back towards the river.jpg241.2 KB · Views: 8
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13.09.15 14-miler 4--another runner.jpg338.7 KB · Views: 7
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13.09.15 14-miler 5--some nice homes.jpg243.1 KB · Views: 7
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13.09.15 14-miler 6--turn off down Grand.jpg231.9 KB · Views: 7
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13.09.15 14-miler 7--down Grand.jpg249.7 KB · Views: 7
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13.09.15 14-miler 8--Irving Park.jpg313.1 KB · Views: 8
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13.09.15 14-miler 9--Dome of cathedral poking through.jpg169 KB · Views: 7
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13.09.15 14-miler 10--Downtown St.jpg194.7 KB · Views: 7
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13.09.15 14-miler 11--High Bridge & dog park.jpg238.1 KB · Views: 7
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13.09.15 14-miler 12--Shepard Rd.jpg274.9 KB · Views: 7
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13.09.15 14-miler 13--a glimpse of the riverr.jpg319.5 KB · Views: 6
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13.09.15 14-miler 14--finally good view by old barge port.jpg250 KB · Views: 5
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13.09.15 14-miler 15-where Mississippi & Minnesota rivers meet.jpg281.1 KB · Views: 5
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13.09.15 14-miler 16--Fort Snelling.jpg271.3 KB · Views: 5
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13.09.15 14-miler 17--Lock & Dam by Ford plant.jpg259.2 KB · Views: 5
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13.09.15 14-miler 18--Back to the parking lot.jpg268 KB · Views: 6
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13.09.15 14-miler--Summit-Shepard Rd-River Rd.jpg116.8 KB · Views: 5
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13.09.15 14-miler--Summit-Shepard Rd-River Rd 2.jpg203.7 KB · Views: 6