Yesterday morning I was up bright and early to get in my 8 mile long run. Unfortunately, it was one of those days where it was already 80 degrees by 7 AM and very humid (97%). But despite the heat I had a pretty enjoyable run. It’s always nice to run someplace different from your usual stomping grounds.

A little over halfway I needed to use the bathroom and lo and behold I found a public beach entrance and it had restrooms and a sink! It was great timing. I also tried out some new fuel halfway- a tri-berry flavored Gu. The flavor was just okay and I need to get used to how thick the Gu gels are (I practically have to chew them to get them down), but it sat well in my stomach.

Once I left the beach town area I continued to head down Kings Road until it dead ends. First I turned right, but the road was closed. This was about 5 miles into my run and my running-brain decided the road was closed for one of three reasons. One, there’s a giant sink hole and I would fall into it if I ran down the road; Two, the two large houses along the road got it turned to a private road and the owners sit on their porches and will shoot me with long range rifles if I run down their road; And three, there’s a loose tiger but only on that specific section of the road. These are the things my brain thinks up when I’m running.

I decided none of those three possibilities were good, so instead I headed in the other direction. And guess what I found? Hills! It turns out there are hills at the beach. You just have to know where to go.

I was having a pretty enjoyable run up until the last 2 miles. Just after I hit mile 6, my right heel started to bother me right at the front part that connects to the arch of my foot. My heel has been bothering me since Wednesday and I’m pretty sure it’s from walking barefoot and/or in flip flops during the day. Thus far it hadn’t bothered me during a run, but after a little over an hour of running it started hurting. It wasn’t really bad, though, so I continued on. The other thing that made the last 2 miles of my run challenging was the pounding headache that crept in at mile 6.5. My head was absolutely throbbing, but just on back right-side. I was drinking water throughout my run, but I guess I hadn’t had enough. All I could do was to keep going.

Hank playing in the waves

I’m happy here just watching, thanks.

I think mine does it to entertain me (those that run with me also get entertained, since I usually share my random thoughts with those lucky people)
If you have a dog, have you ever taken it on the beach? Did your dog like the ocean?

Let’s start by backing up to Wednesday. After completing my first marathon pace run I spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach, working on my shorts tan. After four full days of hard work (and by that I mean laying in the sun), it’s almost gone!! I started reading Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson and let me tell you it is hilarious! I am three-fourths of the way through and am thoroughly enjoying this book. You should totally check it out if you haven’t read it. I first heard about this book when Logan listened to it as an audiobook during her first ultra earlier this year. I now understand why she was laughing out loud and probably making the runners around her thinking she was either crazy or going into some kind of state due to running for so long.

After a day on the beach and some dinner in our bellies (shrimp spaghetti made by moi) we headed out to Painters!

We always go to Painters when we are at the beach. It was really crowded on Wednesday (nothing new there) but totally worth the wait. I think we really only waited 5-10 minutes to place our order and get our ice cream.

I always debate on what flavor to order. More often than not I go with Strawberry because it’s my favorite and I know it’ll be good. I’m always afraid to try something new in case it’s not good and then I will have ruined my one shot at Painters for the year. But this year I decided to walk on the wild side and ordered Banana Pudding!

It ended up being a good decision! Although next year I will probably get Strawberry.

Barry got an Oreo milkshake and my little sister got a banana split. My Dad foot the bill, but did not indulge in any ice cream.

R’s banana split

Who would have thought a recap of a trip to get ice cream would require five pictures?

Thursday was a rest day from running and another day spent on the beach reading Let’s Pretend This Never Happened and some magazines. When I got down to the beach my dad and little sister were already there. I was standing in front of my sister, who was sitting in her beach chair, when she said “your calves look meatier since the last time I saw you.” I replied “gee, thanks!” and she said “no I mean it like they’ve gotten stronger.” To which I said “well it sounds like you’re calling them fat.” And then she said “at least you don’t have cankles.”

About an hour and a half after this exchange my little sister stands up (don’t forget, we’re on the beach) and says she’s going to go in for the day. As she’s packing up her stuff she declares “there’s sand everywhere!” and then she left. Barry, my dad, and I didn’t know what to say to that one.

This morning I had a tough 4 mile run. It’s really humid and I felt like I was melting. I also just felt like I didn’t have any energy. It probably would have helped if I had drank more than 2 bottles of water yesterday (my urine was brown after spending the day on the beach yesterday… I know you wanted to know that). But I got through it. Here’s where I ran:

And here’s to hoping I feel better on my long run tomorrow. But if it’s just as tough as today…. at least I don’t have cankles. At least there’s that. (Note: You should know that on one side of my family cankles are a very common thing to have, so I mean no offense. It’s a family thing I guess) 

Do you have any siblings?

What’s the last random or ridiculous thing someone said to you?

Have you read Let’s Pretend This Never Happened?

I thought I would take a break from posts about the beach and running on vacation to share a little bit (or a lot) about Bloodhounds. Warning: I tried, but I really didn’t do a very good job organizing this post. If it bothers you, just scroll through and enjoy the pictures or come back tomorrow.

As you know we have two Bloodhounds. Hank, our black and tan male, is three years old and Scout, our red female, is eleven months old.

Before I got Hank I did a lot of research on breeds before settling on the Bloodhound. Through that research, and from having Hank and Scout, I have learned a lot about how neat this breed is.

Bloodhounds were often portrayed in movies as being vicious and blood thirsty, and many people think that is where the name came from. However, Bloodhounds actually have English roots and the breed name comes from them being aristocratic and therefore “pure” blood. They were bred to be scent hounds.

A bloodhound puppy will melt your heart. They are very cute and pretty much just a bag of skin.

Scout’s litter

Even as puppies they are very wrinkly. They are very fast-growing and eat a lot as they grow. At four weeks old, Hank weighed nine pounds:

But by the time we brought Hank home at 8 weeks old he had already grown to 19 pounds:

Similarly, Scout was close to 20 pounds at 12 weeks old when we brought her home, but has since grown to 90 pounds at 11 months old:

Once you bring a puppy home, it’s time to think about things like house breaking and obedience training. But one of the hallmark traits of the Bloodhound is that they are very stubborn. Hank will actually “talk back” to me when I tell him “no.” Their stubbornness translates into them being difficult to train. With a lot of persistence, we were able to get Hank and Scout both through basic obedience training.

Hank

Scout

Bloodhounds are gentle giants and usually have good temperament (there are always exceptions). Hank is the perfect example of both of these. He is very gentle when he’s around kids and he will let you tug on his ears and tail and give him tight hugs. Scout is also very tolerant, but not as gentle. She gets very excited and has a tendency to jump.

The bloodhound is an amazing sniffer and is actually the only breed who’s testimony will hold up in a court of law. Bloodhounds that are trained in Search and Rescue can follow a trail that is up to 300 hours old. Although Bloodhounds are very stubborn, they take to tracking training like a duck to water. When we take Hank and Scout for walks, they keep their noses to the ground the entire time.

Their long ears and wrinkles add to their tracking ability. Their ears help waft the scent into their nose, while the wrinkles on their face act like blinders for their eyes, which keeps them from getting distracted. They also slobber a lot (and shake their slobber onto the walls and ceilings in my house), which helps trap the scent.



All these wrinkles have a purpose!

Bloodhounds are a large breed- Hank is 125 pounds and Scout is close to 90 pounds. Both are within the normal weight range for their breed. Due to their large size, it is important to elevate their food bowl. This helps prevent bloat, which is when they get a lot of air in their stomach, causing it to flip (which can be a life-threatening condition). They’re also extremely strong dogs and pull like a tractor.

If you remember the Bloodhound from Sweet Home Alabama that slept on the porch all of the time, that was a pretty accurate portrayal. Both Hank and Scout are happy to nap the day away.

But they are also always up for an adventure. When they get excited they will bark or bay. They have deep, loud voices and when they bay it sounds like they’re making the loudest noise they can from their throat (as if they are just forcing all of the air out).

When they’re not sleeping our dogs like to chew on rawhides.

Hank

Scout

Bloodhounds are often used in Search & Rescue and in prisons to track down escaped prisoners. They take to tracking so easily that anyone can train them without much trouble. Barry and I trained Hank to track and then we would play “hide and seek” with him. He won every time. We haven’t done any specific training with Scout, but she routinely tracks us through the backyard when we have walked through it before letting her out.

They make great family dogs. Hank and Scout are extremely affectionate and love to be around people. They are sensitive and get their feelings hurt easily if they are harshly corrected. But at the same time they like to be the bosses of the household. They are stubborn, loyal, intelligent, affectionate, wrinkly, massive, lovable, powerful scent hounds.

As the title indicates I did my first “marathon pace” run this morning. I think this is essentially the tempo run of marathon training, meaning you’re teaching your body how to hone in on your race pace. Can you tell I’ve been reading a little bit of Hansons Marathon Method? On a side note, I hope there is a marathon #2 and I hope to use the Hanson Method to get me to that starting line, because I am intrigued by what I have read so far. But for now we will focus on marathon #1 and the Runner’s World training plan I am currently following.

Today it called for 4 miles with 2 at marathon pace (MP). Sound simple enough, except that I really haven’t decided on a goal time (my goal is to finish) and I have no clue what pace I should run. So I started by consulting Mr. McMillan and his running calculator. But right away I found that I wasn’t sure what to plug in to the calculator. Should I use by half marathon PR? Should I average my worst half marathon with my best time and use that? I wasn’t sure, but I settled on using a time that I have finished a number of races in or around: 2:10. The calculator spit out 4:33:35, a 10:27/mile pace, as my predicted marathon time. I decided to round down to an even 4:30 and thus set my marathon pace at 10:17/mile.

Funny thing about 10:17 pace is that it’s slower than the pace I do most of my shorter, easy runs. So that probably means I’m running my easy runs too fast. It also means this version of a tempo run, with my middle miles being at MP, is not nearly as intimidating as the “traditional” tempo runs I have done, where they are more focused on speed.

So with all of that figured out, I headed out for my 4 miles with 2 @ MP. I did my first mile as a warm-up around the campground and watched the people who drag their beach stuff out at 6 AM to get their spot on the beach. No picture, sorry. But here’s one of the Pines area within the campground, looking in the direction of the ocean.

After my warm-up, I headed out onto the Kings Road path for my 2 miles at MP. The pace was comfortable, but I had a tough time. I stalked my Garmin the entire time and kept slowing down and speeding up accordingly. I would look at my watch and see 9:48 pace and slow down then look again and it would say 10:55 pace and then I’d speed back up. This faster/slower pattern went on the entire two miles. Good thing I have weeks to practice my race pace. Miles 2 and 3 ended up being 10:11 and 10:13, respectively. And to go along with my very first marathon pace run, I took my very first running selfie.

So in addition to learning to lock in on a 10:17 pace I also need to work on smiling like I’m actually happy to be running. At least I didn’t trip on anything.

Overall, I found this run pretty easy. I know that in the weeks to come these tempo runs will get longer and it will probably get more challenging. But I would also hope that a pace I intend to maintain for 26.2 miles would feel relatively easy for 2 miles. I don’t necessarily want to hold myself to a time goal for my first marathon, but I also need something to aim for in training. So for now I will forge onward with 10:17 burned into my brain. And since I’m at the beach, here’s a picture of the ocean when I got back from my run.

I guess I shouldn’t take pictures looking directly into the sun?

Am I on the right path figuring out my marathon goal and thus my marathon pace? For those of you who have run a marathon before, how did you decide what to aim for on your first marathon?

Do you ever take “selfies”?
Clearly I need practice.
When you’re on vacation do you like to sleep in or get up early?

I kicked off our first full day at the beach with a 4 mile sunrise run. I ran around the campground for the first mile and was treated to a cloudy sunrise.

Then I headed out to run on the path along the main road for the remainder of my run. This was my fourth day in a row running and I felt pretty good. It certainly helps that I’m at sea level, about 2500 feet lower than usual. However, it was 69 degrees with 90% humidity and I was definitely feeling it towards the end of my run.

The rest of our first full day was spent on the beach. I spent most of my time just relaxing and reading a good book and played in the ocean a bit with Barry. There was a strong current so I got in a bit of cross training swimming against the current to get back to where our umbrella was located. Quite the workout. After a full day on the beach, my dad fixed some delicious hot wings for dinner and we played corn hole.

Still got that sock tan….

Hank and Scout are enjoying the air conditioning. They like going for short walks and exploring (sniffing) a bit, but are happiest lounging in the camper.

At least they travel really well. The two of them slept the majority of the 6-ish hour drive here on Sunday.

Today was a cross training day so I recruited Barry and Dad for a morning bike ride. We rode down to a little beach town area where a bunch of condos, hotels, and little shops are located.

I am hoping to trick someone into playing Frisbee with me on the beach later today!

Have you been to the ocean before? Do you like swimming in the ocean?
I like to swim in it until I get freaked out about sharks, then I get out.
Have you ever played cornhole?

What non-traditional forms of cross training do you like to do when you’re away from your normal routine?
beach Frisbee!