"Should I turn left or right?"

Wednesday, June 26, 2013
I drove to the Brecksville Reservation with the intention of riding my bike, but as I looked at the time, knew that the most I could do was a little more than an hour on the bike.  That might seem adequate, but it never feels that way for me.  I’m at the point where, if I’m not able to ride two hours, I’d rather be doing something else.  That thinking is flawed, but there it is.  What I should do when I can’t ride longer is ride hard, but on this day I decided on a run instead.

Running is good.  I need to use the muscles that propel me while supporting my weight and working against gravity.  Riding doesn’t do that and I need to work the hiking/running muscles if I’m going to have a successful 120-mile hike in nine weeks.  My hope is to hike 25 miles a day for 5 days to get the hiking portion of Tour Ohio done.  I’m thinking I’ll average 3 miles per hour and hike eight hours of the day…with numerous breaks for writing and pictures in between.  Since I’ll have just completed over 1,200 miles of riding, I’ll be in shape, but walking muscles are different.  Anyway, a run here and there is a good thing.

I’ve run the trails in Brecksville on several occasions, but it’s been ten years since I was last there.  I parked my car on Meadows Drive, changed and headed into the woods on one of the many hiking trails in the park.  I had a general idea of the direction I was headed and confirmed it when I passed over a large creek I recognized.  After 25 minutes of running; I really wanted to go no more than 30 to avoid another injury, I reached Meadows Drive again and turned to run what I thought was the short distance back to the parking lot.  I debated which way I should turn.  My instincts told me ‘left’ but I saw a stone wall I thought I’d recognized to the right and so went that way.  After running for half a mile and seeing a clearing through the woods that I suspected was the parking lot, I crashed into the woods to follow the light.

It was a golf course…and there isn’t supposed to be a golf course on this run.

Okay…clearly I’d screwed up.  I went back to the road and headed further down the road before finally stopping some cyclists to help me get my bearings.

“You’re talking about the parking lot with the baseball diamonds and the pavilion?  Well…that’s a couple of miles in the other direction,” I was told.

So…I ran a couple of miles in the other direction.  I was sweating profusely with my shoes saturated and squishing as I finally approached my car an hour after entering the woods.  Amazingly, I had no discomfort of any kind.  I felt like I could have run another hour.  My calf and hip were both solid, though I was spent from dehydration.  I also had a sneaking suspicion I’d pay for this run over the next couple of days…if not with an injury, then just overuse soreness. 

The moral of the story?  Trust your instincts and turn left when you think you should.

Run duration:  60 minutes.

Training Heart Rate:  140 bpm.
Calories burned:  1050.