Red Bug Slough to Lockwood Ridge Loop de Loop

Red Bug Slough to Lockwood Ridge by addickens at Garmin Connect - Details

I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to run today when I left the house, I just wasn't sure of the exact route since some of the area in Red Bug Slough I had only viewed from aerials so I wasn't sure where the trails led. Not long after getting under way, while heading north on Beneve, I wondered what my heart rate was so I changed the view on my Garmin to the heart rate page. It was at 136 or 137. At this point I decided to run based on my HR and slowed to get the rate below 130. For a while I tried to adjust my pace to keep the rate below 130 but soon concluded that 135 would be a better number. So the rest of the run was completed with me keeping an eye on my heart rate and adjusting my pace to keep it as close to 135 without going over as possible.

This route was really a loop de loop and you need to zoom in a bit on the map to see the the entire route around Red Bug Slough. At about 23 minutes in, near the northwest side of the lake, while going through a wooded section, my left foot caught a tree root causing me to fall forward. I caught myself on the palms of my hands, stood up and kept going. No skin was broken and no blood was drawn so it really does not qualify as an "incident" however, my lower back on the right side has some soreness, apparently from a muscle pull.

Fully aware of the potential consequences, I tinkered with my during the run fueling today and took along a prune wrapped in wax paper. At about 40 minutes, while heading south on Lockwood Ridge, I had my prune in 3 small bites. My fueling consisted of an FRS energy chew before taking off, FRS energy drink powder in my water bottle which I drank from through most of the run and a final FRS energy chew at about 60 minutes. I am happy to report that there were no adverse reactions to consuming a prune during the run. I just don't know if there was any benefit.

So there you have it, by watching my HR, I completed my longest run in quite some time, saw some more of Red Bug Slough and worked up a good appetite in the process. We ended up at Dutch Valley where I had a Spanish Omelette with Jalepeno bacon and felt no guilt. I am now going to make an effort to complete my project of verifying the thread count of our sheets.