Running
Running Log: 4x4x40 - 8/10 (5:04 am) - 4.02 miles at 8:59/mi pace, 40°F 🌌
Less sleep in between than I hoped, my wife woke up not feeling well. So I did what I could to help her get. I think I got 1hr of sleep but it is not easy at this hour to shut the mind down.
Running Log: 4x4x40 - 7/10 (1:02 am) - 4.02 miles at 8:47/mi pace, 47°F ☁️
Well hello there… 🦌🏃🏻♂️
Running Log: 4x4x40 - 6/10 (7:57 pm) - 4.01 miles at 8:31/mi pace, 48°F 🌥
Over halfway done. Time for some short night’s rest before the next one.
Running Log: 4x4x40 - 4/10 (1:01 pm) - 4.02 miles at 8:33/mi pace, 45°F ☁️
This one I turned into a grocery store run as we needed a couple things for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow.🏃♂️
Running Log: 4x4x40 - 5/10 (4:41 pm) - 4.02 miles at 8:59/mi pace, 50°F 🌥
Probably shouldn’t have run the trails as it got dark faster than I anticipated. 🏃🏻♂️
Running Log: 4x4x40 - 3/10 (9:00 am) - 4.01 miles at 8:51/mi pace, 36°F 🌥
I should have guessed that the boardwalks would have had a little ice on them from the late night rain 🤦♂️🏃♂️
Running Log: 4x4x40 - 2/10 (5:02 am) - 4.02 miles at 8:55/mi pace, 37°F 🌘🌥
I wish I would have slept more since that first run but it is what it is at this point… 🏃♂️
Running Log: 4x4x40 - 1/10 (1:01 am) - 4.02 miles at 8:39/mi pace, 36°F 🌧
Nothing like starting out this challenge in the middle of the night while it is raining 🤦♂️. At least I can check out Christmas lights along the way 🏃🏻♂️
4x4x40 Running Challenge 🏃♂️
Earlier this year I had a plan to run 40 miles with a really good friend of mine through the mountains of Colorado. We thought it would be fun to run 40 miles since we both turned 40 this year. Not to mention suffering together and probably laughing along the way made it seem like a feat that could be pushed through to accomplishment. The timing was not going to be great for me as it was one month before my Twin Cities Marathon but I was game to do it as it sounded amazing. Honestly, I wasn’t even sure how to train for such a thing but I just said yes and he said he would work out the details. The bummer is around May he hurt his ankle and knew the run wouldn’t happen. I was bummed that it fell apart but it probably worked out since I hadn’t run a marathon for 20 years and I wasn’t sure what I was in for. I am sure it probably wouldn’t have been great to come in not feeling the best from a 40 mile run through the mountains no matter how long it took us.
Fast forward to about 1 month before I ran the marathon and I stumbled across this concept of running 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. At the time I didn’t know anything about it but thought that had a nice ring to it. However, the whole 48 hrs didn’t mesh with my goal so I figured I would modify it slightly to fit as a 4x4x40 instead 😁.
4 miles every 4 hours for 40 hours since I am 40 this year
That leads me up to now… After the marathon, I have been trying to take it easy and just running for pleasure but I feel like I have been missing something as I had hoped to do something else with this year 40. After pondering this for the last month, I realized that if I am going to do it I need to do it before it gets too cold in the night to complete this task so I am going to start tonight (or today) and we will see how this goes.
I do know more about the real 4x4x48 challenge and the guy who created it. However, my goal still has not changed. I will probably write about it as I go mostly just to document it along the way so I apologize to anyone not interested in this disregard my posts for at least more than 40 hrs from the first. Then we will be back to our regularly scheduled posting.
I don’t have any main goals in mind if you are wondering. My goal is probably to do as many of these 4x4s that I can in hopes to get to 40 but that is a lot of mileage for me in a short amount of time. Also, I am not concerned about my pace either except hoping I don’t go too fast at any point as that could screw things up. Either way, this is going to be an interesting experiment no matter how many I get done so we will see how it goes!
A final note for those interested, I am still working and getting kids to school and activities. So I am kind of treating this as just some breaks throughout my day and that is another reason why this time lined up perfectly. In the perfect world, I would only be doing this 40hrs with no other responsibilities. 🤷♂️
Found time to sneak away between family bowling this morning and hockey after dinner. Couldn’t pass up an opportunity to wear shorts again running as the times I can are shrinking fast. Also, what a great sunset with some ice on the lake 🏃🏻♂️
Found some time to get outside today and was listening to Hemisphere Views One Prime Plus episode 15 and 16. Let’s just say one really hit home with the fence / no fence on this city “trail” that I feel like I was in peoples backyards and running right next to fences 😁🏃🏻♂️
Wasn’t the plan for my distance but decided to keep enjoying our 12°F weather today (with a feels like -1° F) and run 13.1 miles this morning 🥶🏃🏻♂️🦃
Such a beautiful day out today (53°F) how could I not get outside for a late afternoon run to enjoy it. 🏃🏻♂️
Had some time this morning for a longer than normal run. It was a welcomed way to clear the mind after a busy weekend and get to work for this short week.
Seems like they cleared out a lot of buckthorn and tall grass here in the center circle of the nature trail. Then the clearing stops, wonder what the game plan is here 🏃🏻♂️🤔
Nostalgic November 🚂
Prompted from an episode of Hemispheric Views where they brought up this subject of Nostalgic November where you would share a memory of anything from your past that brings a smile to your face. I hadn’t thought much of it since I listened to the episode but all of a sudden over the last couple of days I realized things I was doing, researching, or even talking about have been reminding me of something from my youth.
Trains… 🚂
That is right, trains. I have always had this interest / fascination with trains which at some point also lead me to model trains when I was younger. I am not sure when it ever first started but it could have been a visit to the Henry Ford Museum as a kid, or watching trains go by the train tracks at the end of the street, or maybe from my walks home from school or when my friend and I would go exploring train bridges and walk along the tracks near our houses, or it could just be they are huge machines and as a kid that is really cool! I am not sure when my interest in trains finally led me to model trains but when that happened I remember being interested all over again as it was something I could purchase, build, and tinker with all the extra electronics.
Over the years, I stopped getting more model train stuff and boxed everything up when I went to college. After college, there was a brief time when I lived with my brother and I got really into it again and started buying engines and other parts as a local store was going out of business. However, once I moved away to Chicago that obsession stopped again. Once I moved back to Minnesota and we had younger kids I set up the track and got all the trains out a couple of times but even then that has now passed. They are now sitting in a box high up in the closet of our basement craft room. Maybe someday I will bring them down and set them up again.
One thing is for sure, anytime I find myself running on an old Rail Trail, crossing train tracks to get somewhere, visiting places with old train Depots, or even thinking about how I used to walk home from school. All of those experiences trigger memories of when I was younger.
Todays running adventure in the light snow fall was finding a new trail. Or that is what I thought I had stumbled upon… Come to find out I was wrong. So after jumping through the tall grass for a while I gave up and turned around. 🌨🏃🏻♂️
Do you see a trail?🤦♂️
The Tale (or Trail) of 6 Tunnels
Decided to follow a trail with 6 tunnels yesterday along the 3.4 mile Bluff Creek Local Trail in Chanhassen 🏃🏻♂️
W 78th St Tunnel (the start of the trail)
Arboretum Blvd Tunnel (It is really two tunnels as you can see the space in the center but really only one road so I am counting it as one)
Coulter Blvd Tunnel
Twin Cities & Western Railroad Tunnel
Lyman Blvd Tunnel
Bluff Creek Road Tunnel
Then I actually found the end of the trail so I turned around and ran back to my car 😁. I had actually never run on this trail before so even though the map said it was going to end sometimes things aren’t updated that well and I was thinking it might have gone further. So it did surprise me when I came to the end and the path did not go further or connect up to anything else. I am guessing it is because if they wanted to keep extending it South they would have to figure out how to go over or under HWY-212.
Overall, it was really nice trail that was all asphalt so I might have to remember this one for next summer with the kids as the distance isn’t to crazy either.
Update: Since I didn’t post this yesterday as planned, I dug into some of the old Chanhassen park records and it seems like the Master Park / Trail plans from 2017 and 2018 assumed they would continue it further South. I wonder if once the construction of HWY-212 was completed they just abandoned the original plan or maybe didn’t leave a passage to get under it. I did notice that the HWY was on the original plans but based on what I know it wouldn’t have been completed at that time and was still a work in progress. Additionally, the details of their plan never really addressed how it was going to get past that HWY like other referenced markings on the plan to show an existing bridge or tunnel.
These bridges were slicker than I had anticipated today with the little bit of packed ice/snow on top. Not to mention the rest of the trails were pretty muddy too 🤷♂️
After a busy weekend, I went out for what Strava tagged as an “afternoon” run 😄🏃🏻♂️
