Chesapeake and Ohio Trail

I had an opportunity to run on the Chesapeake and Ohio Trail this week – good experience.  I was looking for someplace reasonably flat to do 10 contiguous miles on and came across this trail.  For anyone that is not familiar with it, it is basically a tow path along a canal that runs some 184 miles from Washington DC (Georgetown) to somewhere in Maryland.  The purpose of the canal was to enable the safe passage of

goods down and around the various rapids on the Potomac.  I’m not sure how far the trail goes, but it goes further than I can run…  The trail is a crushed rock/dirt, smooth enough and flat enough to make for easy running.  I like that because I can put myself on autopilot and just run, instead of having to constantly be looking for rocks, branches, and holes.

This picture is at Lockhouse #10 - the canal itself is to the left and the tow path is on the right.  The locks are immediately to the left.

I started fairly early, 6:30AM, and there were quite a few people at Lockhouse #10 parking area off the Carla Barton Parkway – mostly cyclists it seems.  But when I hit the trail, I pretty much had it to myself.  By the time I was finishing, shortly after 8AM, there were substantially more runners and cyclists, which obviously means that this is a popular trail.  But even with all of this popularity the trail was very clean of debris and trash.

Despite the 6:30AM start, the temp was 73 degrees with a 79% humidity.  Up at the parking area there was a nice breeze, but down on the trail there was zilch for wind, so as the sun rose, so did the humidity.

My plan was to run easy and get my 10 miles in.  Easy for me was to be defined by whatever pace just felt good.  Without pressing I found myself loping along at about a 9 min/mile pace, some miles were 8:50, others were 9:10.  Interestingly enough, I found that the mile following a gu (mile 7.5), I actually clocked an 8:40 split – that stuff is amazing.  Once I realized that I was kind of trucking along a little faster than I probably should, I backed it off some and settled back to a 9 min/mile pace.

I had the foresight to bring my camel back, which I loaded up with Gatorade and made a special point to take a sip every ½ mile (very soon I’m going to have to train myself to drinking only every 2 miles – pre-marathon prep).  From prior experience, I wanted to make sure that I remained well hydrated, but not overly so.  I suspect that some of my cramping issues were caused by not watching my fluids and nutrition.  For nutrition, I made sure that I fueled before I left my house (peanut butter on whole wheat toast) and then a gu at mile 3.5 and again at mile 7.5.

By the time I was approaching my mile 5 turnaround point (I was doing an out-and-back run) I was feeling so good (hot but good) that I thought that I should push myself to 11 total miles instead of just 10…  so I trotted along for another half mile and then did my turn-around.  (It is so easy to talk myself into “an extra half mile… it’s only 4 ½ minutes or less… just do it…”  which can really backfire on me since I have to run an equal distance back again.) By now it is about 7:30AM and the sun is definitely up – and even though there are lots of trees for shade, it is hot and humid on the trail. 

One of my heat/humidity indicators is to track when my sweat starts to drip off the bill of my cap.  That started right around mile 7.  At that point I am making sure that I am sipping my Gatorade a little more regularly – I don’t want to cramp.  I was also very grateful that I brought the camelback vs the little bottles and the waist belt.  (I always piss and moan about how heavy – it really isn’t – a full camelback is… but as in this case, so grateful that I had all of its fluids!).

Around mile 9.5 my hams were getting tired and a little tight, so I started modifying my gait a little: one minute one way, another minute a little different, and so on.  That really seemed to help.  As it was tightening, I was a little concerned that it might be a pre-cramping signal, so I was trying to be very cognizant to making sure that the muscle had an opportunity to relax (inasmuch as it can) and stretch out.  The idea with altering my gait was to give my hamstrings a different feel and a chance for me to finish my run without incident.

The last half mile was the hardest.  I think that I was pretty much done at mile 10.5.  The humidity was taking me down and sucking all of the energy out of me.  I felt that I was managing my fluids well and my legs were ok, but in general I was becoming very fatigued.  I know that it is all a training thing.  I had a great 10 miles run 2 weeks ago, but that was in a cold mist.  Humidity is such an energy sucker.  I kept telling myself that this was as tired as I wanted to be at mile 25 and that I could without a doubt finish strong.  I did finish that last ½ mile at a steady pace, making it a 9:10 min/mile split.  Overall I ran a  9:03 m/m pace without really trying.  Very happy with that.

 145 days to the MCM!