17 April 2011: Long Walk

This post will be about training; my next one will discuss issues.
Short version: my loop took 4:12 to do (16.9 miles) and I did one short neighborhood loop to get to 17.3 miles (28 km); pace was about 14:53. Weather: sunny, windy, cool at the start (36 F). This course featured 805 feet of climbing, 1610 feet of elevation change.
I saw a few runners out there.

The course is basically this: I walk from my house (Cooper Street, just south of Laura near Bradley University), up to Columbia Terrace, to Broadway, up to McClure where I pick up the IVS “Boredom” course (near Sheridan). I work my way to Bigelow, then turn on Forrest Hill and take that to Central (crossing Knoxville). Then I stay on Central (hill here) to Marietta to Prospect in Peoria Heights and take that to Grandview. I stay on Grandview to Grandview Terrace, turn on Harmon then take Bishop past the golf course and then to Harvard.

Here (just past 8 miles into the course) I turned left on Harvard and followed it to just where it meets 150; there I turn right (near the Affina building) and then go into Springdale Cemetery; I go through this and take a large uphill to the the Prospect exit. I turned left, then turned left into Glen Oak park, when around the ball field and then down to where Woodruff high school used to be. I follow that road to the riverfront and get on the trail (going around the goose loop) and stay on the trail until it ends near Hooters. Then I cross Washington street and pick up Kumpf; I follow Kumpf to MLK to Union street and turn onto Moss…and stay on Moss to Cooper.
I follow Cooper home (16.9 miles) and did an extra “lap around the block” to get to 17+ miles (17.3).

The walk took 4:18 or about a 14:50 pace. Slow, but the best long walk I’ve had in a couple of years; the cool but sunny (and yes, windy) weather helped. More importantly, nothing hurt. I did have to stop a couple of times due to very active kidneys (they do that when it is cool).