I’m being very careful with my plans to train for a 12 hour race while increasing my speed over 400 metres. After a good long run on Monday, I had planned to do a short and sharp speed trial this morning. Instead, when I set out I was feeling a little stiff and a touch sore, so I immediately decided to simply do a shorter and easier jog. I will now aim to do that intended speed session tomorrow.

Given my past experience with the 400 metres, I know how important it is for me to go easy in the initial training. That’s even more important when I’m concurrently training for such a long event as a 12 hour race, where I’ll be running well over 100 km in one go.

You may be wondering why all the world run photos I post are of the early days in NZ and the US between California and Minnesota. The reason is, after my phone got wet in the floods of Duluth in June 2012, I had to get a new phone. But I have no idea where the photos from the new phone have ended up. I can’t find them. Carmel has thousands, but those can all be seen in the Photos section of the web site. The photos I’ve been posting were all taken by me. I’ll have to eventually post Carmel’s photos when I run out of my own. Anyhow, today’s world run photo is from Kaikoura in NZ, a must-see place for any tourist to the area.

On This Day

Aug 27, 2012

Distance today = 51.69 km; Total distance = 10,671.03 km; Location = Loretto, Tennessee – 35 05.471′ N, 87 25.480′ W; Start time = 0811, Finish time = 1623

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/215837549

I had another interesting adventure this morning. Five kilometres after starting, I reached a long bridge over a river between Muscle Shoals and Florence. To my horror, there was not even an inch of shoulder on the road. The only way I could get across was to run in the traffic lane. But it was peak hour on a Monday morning and the traffic was very thick. How was I going to get across a kilometre long bridge in these conditions? For those unaware, the rules do not allow me to get in a car or use any other means – I have to get across on foot, or go the long way around by finding another road.

I found out later that there was a No Pedestrians sign, but I hadn’t seen that. So I waited for a break in the traffic (luckily for me, there was a traffic light just up the road, so there were thirty second breaks in the traffic every few minutes), and sprinted across the bridge, looking back regularly. When the lights changed and the traffic started coming at me again, I’d jump up on the rail of the bridge and make myself scarce. The cars were only missing my knees by about 20 cm. Needless to say, I was relieved to finally make it across.

Later I ran through a beautiful section of forest. The problem all day, however, was that there was no shoulder and no sidewalk. My ankles are a bit sore from jumping into rough grass all day. And I even saw a large dead snake on the road, so there was definitely danger lurking in the grass.

I eventually crossed over into Tennessee again. I’m now in Davey Crockett territory. Soon after, we stopped for lunch outside a petrol station. The staff, Pat and Roger, were very nice and invited us in from the heat to have our lunch.

All in all, it was an enjoyable day of running. The lower temperatures really make a big difference, even if it is still in the low to mid 30s C.

PS My Garmin froze during the day and the only option was to turn it off and on (in effect, a computer that had to be rebooted). After downloading the data, the points where it froze and restarted were identified, and Google Earth was used to measure the missing distance as 1.37 km. This has been added back in to the total distance.

Aug 27, 2013

Distance today = 53.90 km; Total distance = 25,463.92 km; Location = Glenrowan, Victoria – 36 27.847’ S, 146 13.430′ E; Start time = 0841, Finish time = 1722

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/365925611

Another day of beautiful weather, through equally beautiful countryside. The fields were again a mixture of yellow and green, full of canola and wheat.

After I passed through the town of Devenish at the 10 km mark, I didn’t see another town until the end of the day, when I reached Glenrowan. This is the town where Ned Kelly was captured in 1880, after a marathon siege and shootout with police. There is much in the town to remind you of this.

Thanks to all those who have donated to Oxfam recently. Donation activity certainly appears to be on the increase, as I approach the finish.