August 26th Preview

Most of our current group is otherwise occupied this weekend. Ten of you are running on four different Hood to Coast teams, starting on Friday and extending well into Saturday. The distance per person averages about 18 miles, split into three segments many hours apart.

We still offer a training run locally of nine miles. Besides being few in numbers here, both the day and location will change. It’s on SATURDAY from the MILL RACE TRAILHEAD, with an eight o’clock start.

The route goes to Clearwater Park and back. To come closer to the scheduled length, we need to add some distance at the start and in the middle.

Directions: Head AWAY from Mill Race Path at the start, to 5^th Street, then circle back join the path. Continue to the intersection of the Mill Race and Middle Fork Paths. Turn left, to end of path at Clearwater park. Turn right and continue to end of boat parking lot. Turn AROUND there and come back the same way: Middle Fork to Mill Race to finish. GPS distance is unmeasured but close to nine miles.

Bring a drink for delivery at Clearwater trailhead (halfway). There are water fountains and restrooms at that spot, and at the Jasper trailhead (about two and seven miles). Weather forecast: sunny with starting temperature in 50s, moving toward an afternoon high of 90.

WEEK’S LESSON: YOUR PACE

Question: How fast should my long runs be?

Answer: Let your pace find itself. Don’t try to force an arbitrary pace (such as a half-marathon time goal) onto these runs. Instead, run comfortably, letting whatever happens with your pace happen. Finish with the feeling that you could have gone a little longer that day, which you will do soon enough. Our more experienced runners might want to train for speed during the week. I recommend that this come between Tuesday and Thursday to give enough recovery from the last long run and before the next one. If you run a shorter-distance race during this training period, make it easy. A full effort there would conflict with your weekend long run, which is far more important during this training cycle.