Wingfoot Lake State Park

Since the weather was so nice today, I needed to go for a run.  My plan was to go to Quail Hallow State Park in Hartville and run either the trails or the country roads.  However on my way there, I saw a sign for Wingfoot Lake State Park in Suffield just a mile down the road.  I had already been to Quail Hallow before, it was still 10 minutes away and it was already a little past 6, so I decided to try this park.

I ran down the main road and got on the walking path.  It was a nice looking park.  As I got closer to the lake, I noticed a huge building that looked a lot like the Goodyear Airdock by the Akron Fulton Airport.  (If you've never heard of this structure, read up - it's pretty interesting).  Anyway, the first thing I thought of was that this was the hangar for the Goodyear blimp.  Totally cool!  On my way to the park, I saw the blimp in the air and a lot lower than you usually see it, so I figured that was indeed the hangar.

The building was across the lake, but I made my way down a few country roads, got to a sign that said "Home of the Goodyear Blimp Hangar" and turned down that road.  About a mile down, the road went right past the hangar.  I would've loved to wait there and see it land, but decided to do that another day, especially since I could see the blimp in the far distance, probably over Akron.

After gawking at the enormity of the structure, I retraced my steps back to my car and got in about 6 miles. 

Overhead view of the Goodyear Blimp hangar

2012 Mill Creek Distance Classic

This is the year of the "signing up for races I've always wanted to do."  There's a handful of races out there that I consider every year, but never sign up for for one reason or another.  It started with running the Peace Race last year.  This weekend I headed over to Youngstown to run the Mill Creek Distance Classic.

This is a half marathon race put on by the Youngstown Road Runners and starts and finishes at the Wick Recreation Area.  The route goes along the hilly roads in the park to the Mill, crosses the bridge, does a turn-around about a mile from the Rose Garden then heads back out to the Mill again.

I wasn't sure how I was going to do since my training hasn't been intense mileage, but relatively consistent with some long runs.  Trying for a PR is usually at least in the back of my head, but with this course's hills, a goal of under 1:40 was more reasonable.

The drastic change in temperatures lately made it hard to know what the weather was going to be like until it got closer to the weekend.  It was 60 degrees just days before, but today we had snow flurries and 30 degree weather.

I heard someone say the course has 22 hills.  I didn't want to take the hills too hard, but found I felt strong so I ran them hard.  My legs felt good.  My breathing got naturally heavier going up the hills, but I had time to recover on the following downhills.

My legs started feeling heavier and tired at the Rose Garden turn-around at mile 7.  In my head, I thought "just make it to 10 then you only got a 5k left".  As I ran past Big Bear, I saw Matt Folk flying down the hill with the next person in a very distant second.

When I got to 2 miles left, I got a second wind and my legs felt as fresh as when I started.  I think it was just the adrenaline kicking in though because there were a group of guys around me starting to pick up the pace.  There was one guy in particular who I had been yo-yo-ing with.  I took the flats and downhills hard and worked the uphills.  I could tell he wasn't as good on the uphills, so that's where I made my ground.  Little mind games like this kept me from giving in to a more relaxed pace.  It's amazing how easy it is to add 5 minutes to your finishing time if you decide to just bag it and coast in.

As I came into the finish, my legs were pretty heavy from the last two miles of faster pace and the last 13 of hills.  One guy took off ahead.  I didn't have my usual sprint in me this time, but the guy I had been running by for the last two miles had dropped back.  I finished in 1:36 and was definitely happy with that.  Races are always a great measure of your fitness - they either give you a great confidence boost or a reality check.  Today was a confidence boost.

Boston Store Night Run

Tonight I planned on running 10 miles from Boston Store to Snowville Rd and back.  By the time I got to the Boston Store parking lot, it was 6:30, dark and spitting rain.  I ran to Blue Hen Falls and by the time I got there, I had enough of sliding around in the mud.  I hadn't even got to the worst part of it yet, closer to Snowville. 

So I turned around, got back to my car and did 4 miles on the Towpath between mile markers 21 and 23.  I forced myself to run an easy pace and was glad I did.  I felt great at the end of the run other than my legs and arms feeling a little sore from swimming laps and lifting the past couple days.

Tennis & Snowshoeing

Today my brother and I went over to Towpath to play some tennis indoors.  Every Friday night and Sunday morning they have open court for non-members for $10 per person per hour.  We played an hour Friday and played another hour today.  We were a little rusty Friday, but it didn't take long to get our ground strokes and serves back to normal.  It felt great playing inside while snow was flying outside.  I always love playing at indoor domes, probably because it brings back memories of playing at Avalon and Liberty Racquet Club when I was younger.

Afterwards, I drove over to Pine Hallow at the CVNP and snowshoed for an hour.  This is a great workout!  There was plenty of snow on the ground and I saw other people out on the trails cross country skiing and snowshoeing as well.

2012 Running Schedule

Usually I don't post schedules for the whole year, but this year I'm pretty excited to try a new distance (100K) and run races I've always wanted to, but never got around to signing up for (Cortland 10 Miler & Potatoe Stomp).  I figure if I write it down, maybe I'll stick to it.  So here is my tentative race/event schedule for 2012:

• Mill Creek Distance Classic Half Marathon - March 4th
• Forget the PR 50K - April 15th
• Pace at MMT 100 - May 12-13th
• No Frills, Just Hills FA - May 26th
• Cortland 10 Miler - June
• Pikes Peak Marathon - August 18th
• Mantua Potatoe Stomp 9 miler - September
• Oil Creek 100K - October
• URINEO - December 15th
• MHM???

"When each day is the same as the next, it's because people fail to recognize the good things that happen in their lives every day the sun rises."

Chinese Inspiration

I got off work a little bit late today and got home around 5:30.  I didn't feel like cooking anything, so I ordered some General Tso's Chinese food.  After eating half of this, I cracked open my fortune cookie.  It read, "When you exercise the body you cleanse the soul."  I had planned on kicking back and watching TV tonight, but after reading this I felt motivated to go do a workout. 

So I drove over to the Kent Rec center and swam some laps.....64 of them for a mile.  I felt great doing them and it really wasn't too tiring.  Not sure what kind of times are good for a mile in the pool, but I did it in 28 minutes and was pretty happy with that.  I went in the jacuzzi and sauna after and felt way better than I did when I came.