I think it is about time to tell you more about my training grounds. In an earlier post (“Can Your iPhone Freeze In Cold Weather?“) I gave a cursory introduction of my “sole mate,” the snowy path along which I run. However, I never provided any details.
Pearson is one of eleven Metroparks (10,500 acres) in our area and “…is one of the last remaining stands of the Great Black Swamp, a notorious forest that once blanketed much of northwest Ohio.” And lucky for me, it sits right across the street and offers 8.5 miles of trails including a 2.9 mile loop/exercise trail of crushed stone.
Since I started this endeavor, I have always run the loop in a clockwise manner. For some reason, today I ran counter-clockwise, and to my surprise, today was my fastest pace so far — 3 miles; 9:58 per mile. The training schedule did say I could run a bit faster today than yesterday, but come on; would I really do that on purpose? Could there be something psychological regarding clockwise/counter-clockwise? I hope the actual marathon course takes this into consideration!
[...] twelve-mile run last week, I made sure to program the Park Ranger’s phone number into my iPhone (see earlier post regarding my training grounds). That’s right. Just like Yogi Bear, I can now contact Mr. Ranger if I take a fall, get stuck in [...]