Because of a situation at home recently, I haven’t been able to run per my schedule. As I mentioned in my last post, the last week has been disturbed, so I’m running whenever I can. Not ideal, but it will be like this for a while.
I had a 5 Miler planned for today and I wanted to run flat and grass. The Idea was to run slower than 9pc on a mild surface, grass being the best. In view of this, I had hunted for a few public parks closer to home.
I found an ideal park I located by driving around. There were actually 2 parks located about 1/2 mile from each other with a long winding boulevard between the two. I figured this would be ideal since I could run a couple loops around both and run the connecting street.
BAAAAD recon job 
Merely driving by where you want to run is NOT the way to find a suitable course! Sure it was all grass, but the south park had tiered levels with a baseball diamond on each. The steepness between each was surprising, and there were plenty of gopher holes so I had to continually watch where I was stepping, not conducive to running relaxed or efficiently.
While the boulevard I drove on seemed gentle enough, it was a greater upslope than expected. Only the north park was desirable and exactly what I had expected. This also means that I would have to run back on the connecting boulevard- downhill. I even ended up running on the cement sidewalk for a certain distance; a definite no-no 
At several points in the run, I felt a slight pull in both calves, in totally different areas than I’d felt before. I didn’t pay too much attention though, I actually was happy the former right Achilles and left Calf issues didn’t seem to surface.
Well, by the time I got back to the south park, I had no juice left to run up to the diamonds and aborted at 4.27 Miles. It’s not like I was spent; but I had cut short 2 long runs this month; today and the now infamous #202 on the 3rd. I’m doing something wrong, it’s time for a reality check!
Both these long runs were in hills, on both I wasn’t familiar with the terrain, and while today’s run wasn’t too hot, they both overheated me and gave me radiator head (like when your car radiator blows steam). I think the lesson to be learned here is that I’m not quite ready to deal with hills, heat, and gopher holes!
The pace itself was decent in that it wasn’t really too fast, but it certainly wasn’t well paced, there was 70 seconds difference between the faster and slower miles. I had once again run out of my ability.
Be sure to click on the details link in the map above for the run recap. You can also navigate back and forth through my other runs to see my progression so far. I hope this can help you in your journey.
Thanks for reading, Claude