Medium run, 4 miles, 45:29; splits 11:16, 11:01, 12:34, 10:33; RPE 4-7
Instead of the state game land route, I decided to run my usual course and turn around at 2 miles. I didn’t feel like dealing with the incredibly steep hills & tall brush, and I was curious to see where the Forerunner would place the second mile mark. Turned out to be a harder run than I planned on because Canada Road has just been spread with gravel, so the footing is very bad; a chance to practice keeping my legs loose below the knee. I still haven’t moved to a morning schedule, but Jonathan’s not out late rehearsing, so I ran as soon as I got home–but I had to stay late at work. It wasn’t too hot, even though everything smelled great after baking in the sun. Pine resin, the damp earth smell of the fresh dirt/gravel mix, and powerful sweetness in the honey locust grove near the end of the run–no blossoms visible yet, but it must be them. There’s a kind of grass (I think) around here that has a particularly pungent sweet smell, too–more noticeable in the spring but still around. I saw an animal sitting in the road ahead of me which at first I thought was a cat. But it was too big, and when it got up I saw that its legs were too long. Before I could get really close it leaped over the barbed wire fence into the woods. It was a fox–I think a gray fox. My friend Mary Beth’s rule of thumb that I just learned is that if you see a red fox, there’s no doubt, it’s knock-your-eyes out red. If you see an animal & you think “Gee, I guess that’s a red fox,” it’s a gray fox. If you see a foxy creature that definitely looks gray, it’s a coyote.
The Forerunner beeped for the second mile right where I had marked the split in the car, so I think the distance measurements are accurate. When I run the Stanley Lake loop again, I’ll see whether I messed something up last time. I stopped on the way back up the long long hill to eat wild raspberries–there’s a huge patch of them there. I love raspberries, but our wild ones are very seedy and not particularly tasty. Still, a raspberry break is an opportunity not to be missed, especially because I’ve seldom found more than a few bushes together. I love the Forerunner’s auto-pause feature!
We’re leaving on vacation Saturday, and I’ll do Sunday’s long run in Montreal! So next entry may be the last one until we get back (Sunday 7/11). I’m really glad to have the Forerunner for vacation–I don’t need to worry about picking routes ahead of time.