March 31, 2015

A walk on the pier

Yesterday was really gorgeous outside! It was the first day that actually felt sort of spring-like. I was hoping to run 4.5 miles as scheduled, but my calves have been so sore lately. I have no idea why! It almost feels like I'm a beginner runner again or something. So, I decided just to shift my whole week over a day, and call yesterday a rest day.

Even on my rest days, though, Joey needs exercise, so I decided to take him on a walk at the State Park. I didn't want to walk far, so I chose to do a path that is about two miles around. The sun was shining, and it put a little pep in my step, so when I approached the path that went down the pier, I decided to take that little detour.

This was a part of the park that I'd never explored before. I remember being at the beach with my family (including my grandma, who was in a wheelchair, so it was probably 1998-ish? She died from Alzheimers in 1999). I remember my family deciding to take a walk on the pier, and pushing my grandma in the wheelchair; but at the time, I was overweight and it was a hot day, and those two things just aren't much fun when it comes to exercise, even if it was just a stroll. I decided not to go, and I stayed at the beach.

For all these years, I had these negative feelings associated with that pier! It sounds so stupid, but I just never had the desire to explore it, because it reminded me of that hot day when I was too lazy to walk it. (From the path that I usually run, you can't really see the pier; you can only see a couple hundred feet before it curves, so the whole pier was a mystery to me.)

Anyway, I was feeling so good while I was walking Joey, that I didn't even hesitate to turn onto the path to go on the pier. And it didn't take much to see how much I'd been missing all these years! It was a fantastic walk. I took a bunch of pictures, of course, which don't do it justice...





I've seen Lake Erie ten thousand times, but it just looked exceptionally pretty from that angle. The walk to the end of the pier was about a half-mile.


It was so nice that I'm definitely going to start including it in my runs at the park when I can. In total, we ended up doing 3.25 miles, so it was longer than anticipated, but I'm so glad we tried the pier walk!


This morning, my calves were still sore, but I decided to just run and hope that running would help them to feel better. I took Joey to the State Park again (I like running there with him, because there isn't any traffic to worry about). I had 4.5 miles on the schedule, so I did my typical 5-mile route and just threw in a little shortcut.

The first quarter mile or so was rough because of my sore calves, but once I got warmed up the soreness went away. When my watch beeped at a mile, I was surprised to see our pace was sub-10:00. Usually, when I run with Joey, the pace is pretty consistent between 10:00 and 10:30. When I saw that, I felt determined to keep it up for the remainder of the run.

It was kind of funny, because there were a few times where I could feel myself starting to slow down, and then Joey would see a bird or squirrel ahead, and basically throw me into a sprint for a few seconds, haha. It wasn't an easy run, but it wasn't super hard, either. I'm actually really happy with my pace, considering my seven-week hiatus from running this year! (That last half mile was kind of killer, though.)


I've been thinking about my focus for Indy. A PR is totally off the table, as that would require an 8:30-ish pace, and I'm not delusional. My next thought was a course PR. When I ran this race in 2011, I finished in 2:10:40; so, I could aim for a time better than that, which would be a 9:58 pace. OR, and this is something I've always wanted to do during this particular race, I could run very easy, and take pictures along the course.

Whenever I've done this race, I haven't had a camera (that was before my iPhone), and there were so many cool shirts and bands and spectators that I wanted to snap pictures of along the course. I could probably still do that and maintain a sub-10:00 pace, but it wouldn't be easy. So, I'm not sure which would mean more to me--pushing myself for the course PR, or taking the pictures along the course. (Now that I type that out, I am leaning toward the pictures...). Or, who knows? Maybe a 9:50 pace will feel easy by then, and I can do both! ;) (Although, it's less than five weeks away now. I'm so excited!!)

10 comments:

  1. Looks like a beautiful walk. I always think I'm going to take it easy and take pictures along on of my events and then I get caught up in the competitiveness (against myself) and I've yet to do it. Good luck in Indy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow what a beautiful place to walk/run!!

    Doing a half for fun and just taking pictures is really a great day and you meet a lot of fun people, even if you dont do it at Indy....try it you will love it!

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a gorgeous view! You really inspire me to keep running and be as healthy as possible. My mom is always sick and has been that way for as long as I can remember. I don't want to be like that--I want to walk the pier!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I don't live too far from the lake (Lake Ontario), but I haven't been running or walking down there for months since it gets just that much colder. But these pictures are gorgeous, so I can't wait to run down there! Last time I ran down there I was still doing walk-run, but now I know I could actually run the whole way there and then some, so that'll be pretty cool :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I wonder if the sore calves could be because you're running with Joey more. Running with dogs can definitely change your form & stride, and if he's making you do mini-sprints all the time that could do it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beautiful pictures!! Yesterday was one of the first nice days here in MN, too - I'm so excited for spring!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow! That is crazy beautiful! What a great view for walks and runs!

    ReplyDelete
  8. the lake looks pretty nice from your side. my side it still looks pretty ugly from major ice damage

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love your hat! What brand is it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! :) It's Nordbron...? Never heard of it! I got it at T.J. Maxx.

      Delete

I used to publish ALL comments (even the mean ones) but I recently chose not to publish those. I always welcome constructive comments/criticism, but there is no need for unnecessary rudeness/hate. But please--I love reading what you have to say! (This comment form is super finicky, so I apologize if you're unable to comment)

Featured Posts

Blog Archive