Friday, March 4, 2011

8 mile run on the parkway

Updated!


It has been a busy week and I had an hour to run today so I took it. I always try to get a few runs on "the parkway" (see pictures above) while visiting my dad in Minnesota. "The parkway" is a series of bike paths called The Grand Rounds that circles the Minneapolis area. There is close to 50 miles of bike/running paths around the city, it is great. Part of this path runs right in front of my Dad's house. See what it looks like in the summer here and the fall here. I like running south toward the Chain of Lakes area of Minneapolis. The Twin Cities Marathon uses some of these trails as part of the first half of their course.

The temp was probably in the 20s when I left but the wind was fairly calm and the sky was cloudy. I ran out for a half hour, turned around, and came back, adding an extra mile at the end. I am crediting myself with 8 miles for the day.

I left about 30 minutes after a big lunch, which wouldn't be my first choice, but it was my only opportunity today so I took it. I am getting better at running on a full stomach. It used to be a difficult thing to do. When you eat a meal blood goes to your stomach to help digest the food. Then when you start running blood is shunted away from your stomach to the muscles of your legs, slowing digestion. That is why you might feel the food still sloshing around in your gut. If you run after a big meal I recommend keeping the pace easy to avoid cramping and nausea. I picked up the pace a little at the end as it did not seem to be bothering my stomach.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You might hate this, but we here in Republicanville (I mean Houston) have enjoyed temps from 58 to 80 over the course of the past two weeks.