Trail Running

My new favorite love? Trail running. This week I ran three 4-mile loops, mostly groomed trails near our house, and my knees and joints are quite happy. There are so many advantages to "going off road":
1) No traffic
2) Nature in abundance
3) Softer and kinder surfaces
4) Body works on twists and turns of trails, thus strengthening the "support" muscles not often exercised when running on straight pavement surfaces
5) You must slow it down, which has its benefits.
I encourage you to hit the trails this weekend and give it a try. This month's "Trail Runner" magazine (May 2010) is dedicated to beginner trail runners, so pick it up and give it a whirl.

Running For Fun

I am focused on running for fun right now and I must tell you it is, well, fun. I have a schedule that is fairly loose, running four days a week and keeping it around 18 miles per week. Last Saturday, I biked to Mint Springs Park (about 4.5 miles one way) and ran 3.5 miles of trails (very slowly) then biked back for a total of nine miles. It felt good to do something different. I am also running more miles "off-road." Mt blood sugars have been a little irregular, but I attribute that to too much snacking than anything else. Happy spring running, everyone!

Recovering

Dear fellow runners and people managing diabetes: It is now ten days since the ten-miler, and I feel good. My recovery runs have been fine, following the advice of Runner's World magazine so I am running four days a week, but using slow durations runs (20, 30, 20, 30, 30, 40, 45, 50 minutes over two weeks) as my guidepost. I have not been running for distance or speed, just easing in and listening to my body. The body has not complained too loudly, and the soreness I feel is not race related, at least that's what I think. I will begin building back slowly and maintaining my running, but I might mix in some combination trail biking and trail running to spice things up. I definitely feel better when I run on softer surfaces. Looking forward to watching the live streaming of Monday's Boston Marathon. I'd like to see Ryan Hall win in the men's division. He is awesome. Sorry that Kara Goucher is not running this year, but maybe we'll see her again in Boston before too long.

The Charlottesville 10-Miler Race

Friends, family and colleagues have all been wonderful, and politely asking me "How was your race?" I have hesitated in answering because I'm not yet sure. The race itself is a wonderful event, great atmosphere, well organized, a true fundraiser for the local food shelters, etc. But the course itself? It's brutal. The hills are sneaky tough, but I ran them fairly well, never stopping at any point in the race. So here is a summary of some race stats: Pre-race blood glucose was 262 (a little high from eating a light breakfast and purposely not over-bolusing two hours before race-time), post-race glucose was 122 using a 50% of normal basal rate for 90 minutes. I finished the race with a chip time of 1:30:07, about 2.5 minutes below my training target rate. The course measured 10.15 miles on my GPS watch, which leads me to believe the course is a tad longer than 10 miles. I am sore. Next time I run the race, I will bring my own small water bottle. It is too chaotic to run by tables and attempt to drink out of cups while one is running, and it does slow one down! I am looking forward to recovery runs this week, staying on track for about 20 miles per week, and finding some new races for the fall. I might run some shorter races for fun, just to keep me honest on speed work. Happy spring everyone!