8.5 Miles through the woods to 7-11 and back.

Run date: Sunday, June 20, 2010
Run time: Sunset

It is a pleasure when a frequent running route is rejuvenated on a nice summer evening. One of the common trails I take is the one heading south from where I live towards Scott Woods and Hawk Island Park in Lansing. Despite the fact that these areas are scenic, they can become a bit dull when run more than once per week.

This evening's run broke through that for a couple reasons. First and most importantly, the generous growing season here in mid-Michigan has contributed to thick, lush vegetation all over the city. The wild flowers are now in full bloom, and on this, the most frequent of my running trails, I experienced a multitude of colors. As the sun set, the sky was beautiful, while the air around me was cool and filled with sweet smells of green and bloom.

At one point along the trail, I ran next to about a quarter mile of thick and tall mint. Just lovely. Another reason that this route was so refreshing was the fact that I just discovered the last leg of the trail--extending from the south side of Hawk Island Park all the way down to Jolly Road, where it dumps you out at the 7-11. Just lovely.

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I saw four deer grazing on my way back north. Here is one--it was comfortable having me within 100 feet.

And here is another....can you spot it?

Here, maybe, is a reason I need to be a little careful gallivanting around the forest. Last weekend's storm knocked trees down. In this one, you can see the huge splintered trunk. Later, I realized that the path led me right underneath a large tree leaning on another, trying to fall all the way to the ground.

Father's Day Bike Ride in Lansing -- Happy Father's Day!

Wish I could have done that.

Created by My Tracks on Android.
Total Distance: 13.86 km (8.6 mi)
Total Time: 1:28:45
Moving Time: 1:23:48
Average Pace: 6.36 min/km (10.2 min/mi)
Average Moving Pace: 6.05 min/km (9.7 min/mi)
Min Pace: 3.92 min/km (6.3 min/mi)
Min Elevation: 211 m (692 ft)
Max Elevation: 237 m (779 ft)
Elevation Gain: 173 m (567 ft)
Max Grade: 11 %
Min Grade: -14 %
Recorded: Sun Jun 20 20:11:16 EDT 2010
Activity type: street running

8 Miles in Lansing and East Lansing, MI

I did not post for so long, and so now no one is even reading anymore. This is all going according to my plan. Now I can finally release all of the cool tracks and adventures I saved from my trip to the west coast...all for you (me), the only reader I have left.

Also, I realized that the track distances may be somewhat inaccurate. I am not sure that successive GPS sampling points are interpolating the distance. It thinks the scatter, or "noise" is real running distance. I will investigate, see if I can tweak the MyTracks settings, and get back to you.

Run Date: June 2, 2010
Run Time: Evening

This running route is a classic. It has many segments that I know and love and run all the time. And by "love" I mean I am "sick of them" because I run them so much. Somehow, though, once I get going they are peaceful. One of the reasons is the fact that long tracks go along the river on MSU's campus. In the summertime, there is a special sight along this way. It's the set for the Summer Circle Theater, put on each June at MSU next to the river.

I haven't been to a show since 2007, so I really hope to go this year. It's a nice time.

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The location of the Summer Circle Theater is denoted by one of the markers (As usual, if you click on the marker, the associated picture pops up).

As this was a very humid evening, my sweat didn't seem to be cooling me off much. I became really really thirsty about halfway through the run. I knew that Owen hall was on my way. It had just been newly renovated. As you walk in the lobby, you see beautiful interior decorating, as well as thoughtful uses of space for entertainment, internet access, and dining. Surely there should be an easily accessible drinking fountain next to their bathrooms. And of course there was. I had to search for a while, but I finally found it.

Silly me, I didn't look in the bathroom itself until the last moment, when I became desperate.

Here is my Owen adventure, in all its georunning glory:

View 06-02-2010 in a larger map


At least it was some delicious water. But what water isn't delicious when you're tired, hot, and thirsty?


Total Distance: 13.10 km (8.1 mi)
Total Time: 1:17:00
Moving Time: 1:14:24
Average Pace: 5.88 min/km (9.5 min/mi)
Average Moving Pace: 5.68 min/km (9.1 min/mi)
Min Pace: 4.44 min/km (7.2 min/mi)
Min Elevation: 201 m (659 ft)
Max Elevation: 236 m (773 ft)
Elevation Gain: 279 m (916 ft)
Max Grade: -3 %
Min Grade: -6 %
Recorded: Tue Jun 01 20:58:42 EDT 2010
Activity type: street running

4 Miles in Royal Oak, MI

Run date: May 29, 2010
Run time: Hot sometime.

Royal Oak is a great place to run. The streets are nice and quiet, shady for the most part, and have smooth sidewalks. The people are nice and friendly, and contrary to popular belief, the smell of patchouli is not all that overwhelming. Hilary helped me decide that I should take this opportunity to make another entry into the blog. In response, I reminded her that I needed pictures to go with it. I snapped this shot right about when she was saying "Huh?"

View 5-29-2010 Royal Oak in a larger map

Oh, hey! By the way, the geotagging on the pictures is working for this post. So you can click on the marker pins to see the pictures as well as seeing them here in the text.

Downtown Royal Oak is a good place to be seen on a lazy Saturday afternoon, so naturally my running route needed to pass through there.

This is the reason I demanded that Hilary live in Royal Oak. As I ran past it, I felt guilty that I was wasting my time exercising rather than sitting inside this theatre, eating popcorn, and watching The Human Cenitpede.

10 Miles courtesy of the Embarcadero, the SF Giants, and more.

Run date: Sunday, March 7, 2010
Run time: Late afternoon / sunset

For my last shot at a long run in San Francisco, I decided I wanted to run a long stretch of the coast. I set out from where I was staying, trying to work my way towards the Embarcadero, which is the eastern coast of the city. You'll notice on the map a couple places where I had to turn around because I failed to realize the city was on a huge ridge and I couldn't get down to the coast on those streets (see the ends of Chestnut and Lombard).

The journey was fun. I had intended to run down the curvy stretch of Lombard St, but it turns out pedestrians are confined to stairways on both sides. The traffic was probably moving slow enough that I could have run in between cars, but I decided to obey the rules.

I also ran down to the end of a pier, took a couple shots, and came back. Then I hit ATT Park, where the San Francisco Giants play. The statue of Willie Mays is pretty big.

The hills of San Francisco will kill you, especially if you are doing a long run. This 10 mile run felt more like 12 miles, so that put me right where I wanted to be.


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When Californians laugh at you for being cold....

A recurring theme during my stay here has been the fact that the locals complain about temperatures in the 50s as though it is "cold" and "winter." In fact, just this evening on the TV weather forecast, the weather lady described this as "another cold night," showing the temperature map with lows in the upper 40s and lower 50s.

It is no doubt that humans living along the warm ocean currents of the Pacific are weak. Weak when it comes to cold weather. I have taken pride in my running shorts and long sleeve tech shirt attire.

But let me tell you something. This neighborhood I'm in is near the water. It's in the fog belt. There is something about this strip that makes my friend's apartment, specifically the room holding the couch I sleep on, really really freaking cold. So today I figured--what the heck? I'll wear my running pants. It'll be cozy. No sweat. Besides, my pants have zipper pockets, and my shorts only have one small crotch pocket. When I wear my shorts, I have to hold my phone (the phone that brings you GPS magic) the whole time I run. It is nice to be able to throw it into my zipper pocket.

I started off, and was almost instantly too warm when the sun hit me. However, that cold wet wind soon blew into me, and I was thankful that I had a little extra.


Speed training.

The thing about speed training in Kezar Stadium in Golden Gate Park is that it truly is a stadium. It is set below ground, in a bowl. That means the wind is somewhat broken. And the sun bears down like crazy.

I'm going to spare you the details, folks. I got laughed at by high school kids today. I got laughed at by high school kids in shorts, tshirts, and sports bras. THESE ARE CALIFORNIANS. The same wimpy creatures that have worn their down coats and pulled their collars up high to protect themselves from the gorgeous weather that I could only dream about in Michigan in February and March. I am so ashamed.

It had been two weeks since I did a speed workout, and I could tell. I couldn't quite meet my goals. The fact that I did my first of three 800m repeats about 15 seconds too fast may have had something to do with it. What is nice about having such a consistent training regimen for over a year is that I don't feel like it will take me very long to get back to where I was. I think I should be able to recover in just a couple weeks, as long as I find time to do my long runs and speed workouts while in Oregon. (which, by the way, I am off to on Monday).

Since GPS is so awesome, here is the map of todays run, along with stats. See if you can decode my repeat pace. (Hint 1: I did 3x800m repeats with 400m jogs.) (Hint 2: the third repeat was cut to 400m because I blew out.) (Hint 3: It is hopeless to decode the data because I didn't stop the caching until after I had been walking around in circles on the sidelines for several minutes after finishing that excruciating 400m. You will also notice that it cut out at one point, hence the long straight line cutting across the track. Or am I just that fast?)


View 3-4-2010 in a larger map

Created by My Tracks on Android.

Total Distance: 3.95 km (2.5 mi)
Total Time: 21:40
Moving Time: 19:19
Average Pace: 5.38 min/km (8.7 min/mi)
Average Moving Pace: 4.89 min/km (7.9 min/mi)
Min Pace: 3.33 min/km (5.4 min/mi)
Min Elevation: 31 m (101 ft)
Max Elevation: 50 m (162 ft)
Elevation Gain: 89 m (293 ft)
Max Grade: 8 %
Min Grade: -5 %
Recorded: Thu Mar 04 16:21:25 PDT 2010
Activity type: track running

 A fantastic idea! Right on the track. One at each end in fact. Take note, Michigan State University!

A Random Walk (Run) in Golden Gate Park

Run Date: March 1, 2010
Run Time: 3:30 PM
Conditions: Cool and Cloudy

According to the locals--more specifically, one local--the way to see Golden Gate Park is to move about at random through the winding pathways and roadways. If you find spots you like, you can return more directly later.

I needed to do a long run, since I hadn't done one for a while and hadn't run as much as usual since my last race. I decided to enter the park from the north and do a random walk. I'm not sure if my movement fit the Drude model, but maybe I will do a calculation in the next few days.


View 3-1-2010 in a larger map

There are several interesting treats here, like where I got turned around several times and lost another time. I particularly enjoy where I went around the huge outdoor track twice--once on the outer dirt track and the second time on the inner paved track. I also like the part where I'm a huge nerd, which is for the complete 11 miles until this moment.

 

Mythical forest.

  

Awesome.

  

  

Carousel

  

  

Track. I should figure out how to get inside.

  

  

Yum

  

This place was absolutely amazing. 

Fragrant, if you will.

Will you?

  

  

Oh hell yes

  

The fire swamp

  

  

You can't see the waterfall on the right side very well. Bummer.

  

It was pretty painful running up here, but it was worth it.

  

  

  

  

I was too scared to get a picture of the old Russian men playing dominoes and shouting at each other in Russian, but here are some turtles.

  

The end of the trail, naturally.