RUNNING BY THE UMPQUA, YEAR TWO

The whole gang from my family reunion camping outing this last weekend in the meadow by the river.

Had a blast camping with my family this last weekend. It is a trip I look forward to every single year. We camp by the Umpqua River on a chunk of property my family owns. I was brought up on that river and that piece of land, so it holds a special place in my heart. Most of all of one side of my family shows up and it is just three days of good old fashioned fun.

Like last year, I wanted to get a run in during the trip at some point. Since it was over the weekend it had to be of the long run variety. I really wish I could just take a weekend off, but part of marathon training is being fairly uncompromising with your training. If you start to compromise and take days off it will affect your performance in the race. Had I just taken this one weekend off would I be okay?  Yes. However, there are multiple weekends with conflicts ahead and I need to get runs in when I can.

Fantastic twelve miler!

I did the exact same route as last year. It is basically six miles one way (three miles out and back) and then six miles the other way. It allows me a stop halfway through where I can grab a new water that I leave by the side of the road for myself. I really enjoyed this run last year and enjoyed it again this year. Running along those country roads was peaceful. A bit nerving when cars flew by at 55mph, but thankfully it was early enough on a Saturday (around 9am) that traffic was fairly light.

Ended up averaging 8:44/mile (did 8:52/mile last year, but I wasn't necessarily even aware or trying to beat that). Started out slower, around 9:30/mile when running through the field to the road, but once I hit the road the pace came easily and I just went with it. It was also starting to warm up (hit 95 that today) so I didn't want to dally. Drank two fall bottles of water (34oz) in the 1:45 I was out there. Again, the legs didn't feel super fresh due to sleeping on the ground but they definitely felt better than last year.

Six easier miles Monday at run group. Twenty six miles over the next two days on tap. Ugh. More on that later.