Long Run Tuesday

Long runs are now dictated by which days I can go to work late and the weather. (I love my job.)

I thought about going over to Ft Snelling but I was honestly afraid part of the path would be underwater. The river is really high and that path gets pretty close in a couple of places. Instead, I did another one of my favorite runs, along the parkway to Lake Harriet.

I got lost. Twice.

The road under 35W is still closed? Boooo! You have got to be kidding me. I know I've only mentioned this once, nope twice, oh seriously, well, you get the idea. They fooled me this time because it actually says the pedestrian path under the bridge is open. Except when I got there it was physically fenced off and there was a bobcat moving dirt next to the path I wanted to run. Boooo.

I wound up running down to Diamond Lake Road and there is where my navigation efforts started to fail me. I'd actually dealt with the 35W construction long enough that I'd run down to Diamond Lake Road before and used that bridge to cross the expressway. What I forgot is that I needed to stay on Diamond Lake to Lyndale. I got over 35W and turned back north and started thinking, "huh, I didn't realize the creek was so close" and then thought "damn, this hill up Lyndale is really steep from this angle." It was about then that I realized I was on Nicollet Ave which does not intersect Minnehaha Parkway at all, instead there's a bridge over the parkway. There's actually this little street that comes right up from the parkway that I used to get back to my path. But I was momentarily confused. I was also trying to avoid stopping on the bridge and turning around in front of all the cars and the bus there. (It was a moment of OCD and social anxiety I know, but I'm sure you understand.)

Running up Montreal Ave must really be paying off because there's a couple big hills at the end of the run and I had no problems with any of them. The one that usually kills me starts at the bottom of the creek and starts climbing just before Lyndale Avenue. All my time on Lyndale and most of my time on 50th street is up hill. I didn't walk any of it which has probably never been the case before. The best part of that is coming down 50th street in a 200ft drop. I can get running really fast down that hill. (Use the elevation feature on the Gmap site and look around mile 9 to see what I'm talking about.)

I'm also sampling running nutrition products right now to find out which ones I like. I used Gu gel packs last year which were awesome when they weren't killing my digestive track. I wont' be using them this year. I tried the Cliff Peanut Butter Shot Rocks and I found them disgusting. I think other people would like them but there was a taste and smell that was too close to butterscotch/caramel/something-I-don't-like for me to do deal with. I could even smell it when I bit into one. After sampling those I went on to my packet of Strawberry Gu Chomps. Those were awesome. Good flavor, easy to chew and swallow, and really gave me energy. I think I have one more packet of those, maybe a different fruit flavor.

I've decided that I really must have been sick last week when I did my long run because I ran that far today and felt great the whole run.

After the run I went to work. About the second I got home I realized I want to eat Chipotle so I'm writing this while traffic calms down so I can go back out and get my food. After dinner I'll work a little while and head to the hot tub at the Y.