Stepping it up

I got a bit lazy after my half marathon back in November. I've kept up the running and even had a couple of pretty serious weeks, but haven't been nearly as consistent as I was back in September and October as I prepared for the Route 66. For most of January my running has been rather sketchy. Some bad weather, lots of cold evenings and a treadmill as the alternative have made it easy to skip runs here and there as well as quit after 3 miles instead of going 4 or 5.

Finally, the weekend before this last one, I started thinking about how much time we have before the Memorial Marathon. I realized it was only about 2 and a half months so I thought I ought to begin trying stay on a more regular schedule as well as start stepping the mileage up. So that weekend I went out to South Lakes Park (a bit south of Earlywine) where I haven't run since last summer. It was a nice, cool but sunny day and there was still some snow here and there (including quite a bit on the south end of the walking/running path). I had a good 7.25 mile run that day and really enjoyed it. It was my longest run since back in December and I was a bit sore the next day.

One of the "lakes" @ South Lakes Park

I only ran a couple of evenings during the week, one nite putting in 4 miles and then 5 miles for my other evening run. Then, this past Saturday, Peggy was taking K. Lee to a birthday party in downtown OKC for her sister's granddaughter. I decided to ride along and check out the trails they've put in along the Oklahoma River (formerly the N. Canadian river for you non-Oklahoma residents) while they were at the party.

I started out at the Chesapeake Boathouse and headed west down the trail. I ran out almost three and a half miles, then turned around and headed back. It was a nice change of pace (always good to run in a new place) and had a few good elevation changes where the path dipped down to go under bridges. They've planted a lot of trees along side the path, and it should really be nice in a few years when the trees grow up some. The only negative thing about the run was that I had the wind mostly in my face on the way back which adds to the work. I definitely would have preferred to run into the wind on the way out, then have had it at my back for the second half of the run.

It was an unseasonably warm day, with the high getting up to 77, so I did get a bit warm. And we had set a record the previous week with a low on Wednesday the 9th of 4 below!  All in all, it was a good almost 7 mile run. I'll have to do one on the south side of the river to check out the path there. Recommended to the Oklahoma runners for some different scenery. Here are a couple of pix I shot with my phone during the run.

Some pretty good rays shooting thru the clouds over the river.

A nice little section of the trail.