Stone Mountain Park

I went to Stone Mountain Park on Sunday to run 12 miles. It had been a while since I went there to run or ride. The park had a five mile loop and half of it had lanes just for runners and cyclists. I thought it was a perfect training place since it was hilly and I could run on asphalt, much easier on my knees.

One loop's elevation gain was approximately 180. The plan was to run 2 loops and add 1 mile out and back, a total of 12. Since I didn't want to pay $10 for parking, I parked at the trail entrance on Main Street. There was a restroom across from the parking lot which was so convenient. I listened to Pandora's Taylor Swift radio. Feelin' a little country this morning. The first few miles were fine. There were some downhills and a little bit of uphills. I felt a little hot and took off my right glove. Every time I feel warm during a ride or run, I just take off my gloves and it cools me off right away. After 3.5 miles, the terrain was up and up and up. This time the wind really picked up and my visor was hanging on for dear life. Wow... it's really windy (later I found out that the wind was 14-17 MPH). I felt like running on treadmill a little bit. My feet kept moving but I wasn't going forward. Finally I got to the main parking lot, I saw Frank. I knew the Spring team was meeting for a ride. I said a quick hi and started my second loop. I peeked my Garmin. My average speed was 9:12 min pace. Too fast! Mary says run 9:30, but I thought a little quicker was good, so I could sand bag on the second loop when my legs were more tired.

The temperature was cooler than the start. I was happy that I wore gloves. On the second loop, I passed the same runners that ran on the opposite direction again. It was nice to see I wasn't the only one who ran more than 5 miles that morning. The hills towards the end of the loop felt longer. I could see my own shadow. I just focused on keeping my torso straight up, no slouching. Work the abs and lower back muscles!
Finally I got to the top. That's 10 miles. I ran 2 more, it was hard not to keep looking at my Garmin. I just peeked at the distance, not the average speed. Finally, it was 12.0 miles, 10 feet away from my car. I hit the stop button right away. I was pleasantly surprised to see my pace was 9:14. Awesome. Perfect pacing even with hills and wind. I couldn't stop smiling, but then I was feeling guilty that maybe I had a great run today because I didn't push hard enough during yesterday's 50 mile ride (which should've been 55 miles). Oh well.... can't win...