Finding luck and beating the hills...

I was raised in small town (farm town) Ohio, surrounded by rolling hills and acres upon acres of pastureland and corn fields.  It can be constricting and inspiring in equal measure...depending on your point of view or mood.  Recently it was inspiring.

This past weekend I found myself back in my hometown for an event at my former high school.  Being Saturday, I was looking for a long run to get in some miles and sweat off the stress of what had turned out to be a very stressful week (filled with long days at work and sick kids at home with a husband on work travel).

I have a usual route that I run when I'm in my hometown, but it's only five miles.  I needed more. 

My mom says to me: "How about going out 82 to Pioneer Trail, looping around Ryder and back...it's about 6 miles.  It does have Hiram hill (read big hill) but otherwise pretty flat."  Sounds good to me.  I'm in.

The morning was perfect.  About 36 degrees, but comfortable, with a start at 1,029 ft above sea level. 

Within my first half mile, I even found some new luck in the shape of a horseshoe, thrown from one of the Amish buggy horses that go up and down the road regularly.  With that kind of start, how could it be anything but a good run!  (And yes, I did pick the shoe up on the return and plan to hang it in my house for luck this whole season).

Running on that high, it didn't occur to me until my watch flashed the first mile complete, that I had been going up since I left my mother's house.  Huh, no biggie.  Small incline and I was going to have the down at Hiram hill. 

But I kept going up....not much.  I hit 1,082 ft above sea level before the downhill.  Doesn't seem like much.  Relatively unnoticeable.  And then I went down. Straight down, to 1,020 ft above sea level.  (I always thought that hill was bigger, at least it always felt that way growing up).

Looking up ahead of me after coming down Hiram hill, I noticed the road climbed again.  And climbed.  And climbed.  Where was this flat route my mother told me about?  And after driving these roads my entire life, why had I never noticed the hills?

Not one to be beat, I kept climbing.  It had to end at some point, and in the meantime I had the farmland to distract my mind.  When I finally stopped climbing, at mile 3.15, I was at 1,328 ft above sea level.  That had been a relatively steady 3 mile climb up hill.  Whew.

It flattened out and then went down hill after that, except for going back up Hiram hill on the return (though I will tell you, Hiram hill was easy and puny after the first 3 miles of road). 

In all, the 6 mile loop with only one hill turned out to be a 7.5 mile loop that was all hills...but it felt great.  My whole body was alive and engaged in the run. I loved the route.  I loved the views.  I loved the fast (for training) pace I was able to maintain.  All cylinders were firing together.

I guess the moral of the story is that sometimes you get more out of the completely unexpected and really enjoy the outcomes.  I'm not much for surprises and I always make sure I've studied course maps and elevation charts before I run.  But this was a great change of pace and I would encourage others to take on an unexpected challenge too.  Happy trails!!!

2015 miles to date:  329.91 (I'm 70 miles in the hole right now, but can catch that back in a short couple months with the right approach.)

Observations:  My body is giving me more that I expected at this point.  It's feeling good, things are working.  I'm still not as fast as I was before baby, but I'm finally feeling like I'll get there.  I even added a second marathon in to my fall schedule because things are just feeling good.  Let's hope that sticks.

Happy turkey day...

This morning was fantastic! (...too bad my health went down hill from there, but that is another story)  Why was it fantastic?  Well, I had one heck of an awesome turkey trot at Advanced Rehabilitation and Health Specialists (ARHS) in Mantua.

First off, let me tell you why I love ARHS.  About fourteen years ago I was having major health issues (not like the minor seasonal cold type issues I alluded to above)...we're talking the type the doctors had a difficult time pinning down.  It had to do with my head.  I had severe headaches and other issues that caused me to have blurry vision, imbalance, sometimes an inability to stand or walk.  I couldn't focus and the pain was intense...all the time. After MRIs, blood tests and other tests, it was finally determined that I had severe tension in the muscle group that ran from the shoulders up to the top of my head.  Let's just say I carry my stress in my shoulders and neck...to the extreme.  This is where ARHS came in...they were the physical therapist group I spent several months with, a couple times a week, receiving muscle massage (the painful kind) to release the tension and learning new exercises to help me keep the stress damage in that area minimized once I was back on an even keel.  It was, quite literally, life altering and probably the reason I am devoted to running today.  Remember how I'm always saying running is my yoga...my stress reliever?...yep, exactly.

So when I (a) found out I was going to be in Garrettsvill for Thanksgiving and (b) looking for a turkey trot to replace my Annapolis event and (c) discovered there was one at ARHS, it was an easy choice...run the one at ARHS.  Bonus, it was being run on the Headwaters Trail that was nothing more than large stones on an old railroad bed the last time I was on it.  Today it is a smooth surface trail that runs through the beautiful forest and fields I spent the first 22 years old my life around.

The turkey trot kicked off at 8am and was a simple 30 minutes out on the trail, turn around and come back for another 30 minutes.  No specific distance.  Do it at your own pace.  This is what I call a fantastic event. 

So I took off.  For about the first mile I had a small seven or eight year old boy running just slightly ahead of me (and any time he started to slow down and fall behind me he would sprint ahead again).  He soon became way too tired to play at the charade of keeping up and started walking.  Soon I was out on my own, just me and the trail, and the second from the front of the pack heading out.  It provided me the ability to take in my surroundings.

Because my legs and lungs were feeling good, I was keeping a decent training pace.  I got 3.5 miles out when I hit the 30 minute mark.  That was almost to the route 700 crossing, which is where I used to pick the trail up when it only consisted of the 700 - Garrettsville section.  Then I turned it around and headed back.    I've decided I really like this trail.  It's much like the NCR trail I ran the twenty miler on earlier this year with Lara.  Smooth, relatively flat, and very fast.  It's also runs through pretty farm country, which I sometimes miss in Annapolis and Washington.

When I crossed back over the start line, I logged exactly 7 miles on the nose....7 miles and nearly 900 calories burned (which means more calories to eat great pie and potatoes at the dinner table).  As a fun, added incentive ARHS also gave out random door prizes that were more funny than serious.  Yes, and sentimental.  They gave out many Hostess prizes (how much are twinkies going for on ebay these days?) and I won the Hostess cupcakes.  So maybe I didn't have quite so many calories left by the time I got to the dinner table.

Of the turkey trots I've run over the past several years I have to say this was one of my favorites.  There were no prizes for who finished first, no one asked what your time was and you were only accountable to yourself.  Sometimes that is the way it should be in a "race."  Happy thanksgiving and happy trails!!!

Stats -
Miles:  7.0
Time:   1:00:12 (average pace of 8:35 per mile)
Location:  Headwaters Trail, Portage County Ohio
Feeling:  one of my favorite runs this year (though I ended up with a head cold by the end of the day)