avondale training journal, starting Dec. 2018 (comments welcome)

[RuntheMouse]

Great job!

 

[Herding_Cats]

Congrats on surpassing your goal for your race! Looks like a lovely course.

 

[avondale]

@GollyGadget @WillRunForPizza @The Expert @RuntheMouse @Herding_Cats Thanks so much! I appreciate it!

 

[avondale]

Aug. 9 - 10, 2025
First part of South Dakota Hiking Trip

Saturday (Aug. 9)

We arrived in Rapid City, SD reasonably on time. We ended up with a few hours to fill before we could get into our rental house, so we walked along Rapid Creek in Founder's Park, which is downtown in the city.

• time: 56:02
• distance: 2.25 mi
• average pace: 24:50
• elevation gain: 49 ft (corrected)
• comments: It was in the 80s F and we were still in jeans, so this was definitely too warm.

Sunday (Aug. 10)

Two hikes in Custer State Park.

Sunday Gulch Trail

• time: 2:06:38
• distance: 4.17 mi
• average pace: 30:23
• elevation gain: 847 ft (corrected)
• comments: This was a fun hike. The first part goes around Sylvan Lake. Then the trail plunges into the gulch. This would be a lot of boulder hopping and scrambling except that they've put in lots of metal handrails, so you can swing yourself over gaps and level changes. Fun and very scenic. After about 1.5 miles, it turns into a pretty normal trail through the forest back to the lake.

Cathedral Spires Trail

• time: 1:04:46
• distance: 2.16 mi
• average pace: 30:02
• elevation gain: 607 ft (corrected)
• comments: This hike was basically just blasting straight up to an overlook. We passed through a number of the interesting rock "needle" or "spire" formations, but I didn't think the actual overlook at the end was particularly outstanding. It was fine.
• comments: As we were coming back from the overlook, the clouds were definitely looking darker. There weren't thunderstorms in the forecast, but we were glad to get off the trail. Within an hour, there were isolated thunderstorms throughout the area.
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[avondale]

Aug. 11, 2025
Next part of South Dakota Hiking Trip

I wasn't sure that I was going to post every day, but there are a lot of good photos!

Monday (Aug. 11)
Hike from Horsethief Lake to Mt. Rushmore (and back), through Black Elk Wilderness and Mt. Rushmore National Monument

• time: 4:13:29
• distance: 9.4 mi
• average pace: 26:57
• elevation gain: 1911 ft (corrected)
• comments: I thought this was a fantastic hike! It was very pretty with an array of forest types. It wasn't extremely hard, just a bit long. We were passed by a group of three horseback riders a little over a half mile before we got to Mt. Rushmore, and those were the only people we saw on the trail the whole time.
• comments: The end of the hike (halfway for us, since we had to hike back) is across the road from the entrance to Mt. Rushmore, so we went in to see the monument up close. We did the little loop walk that takes you up as close as you can get (an up-the-nose view). All of that added about 1.4 miles to our distance.
• comments: My husband didn't enjoy the hike as much because he was breaking through all the cobwebs across the trail. It did have some bushy sections that were annoying.

My mother is on a two-week bus tour with her best friend that goes from PA west through Nebraska into Wyoming, loops up through Wyoming and South Dakota, and then eventually back to PA. What would be the chances of my husband and I being in the Mt. Rushmore area at the same time that their tour came to Mt. Rushmore? 100% apparently, LOL. We didn't meet at Mt. Rushmore, but we came to the restaurant their group was having dinner at that day and ate with them. In the photo, my mother is on the left (in blue-green). They are having a great time on their trip!

 

[avondale]

Aug. 12, 2025
Next part of South Dakota Hiking Trip

I wasn't sure that I was going to post every day, but there are a lot of good photos!

Tuesday (Aug. 12)
We had reserved tickets for the Fairgrounds Tour at Wind Cave National Park at 9:00am and then reserved tickets for the Scenic Tour at Jewel Cave National Monument at 12:20pm. After that, we did a hike near Jewel Cave in Black Hills National Forest. It was a bit of a long day!

Wind Cave National Park

The attraction at Wind Cave are the cave formations called "boxwork". They are filamentary spider-web-looking lattices that are visible mostly on the ceiling. Our tour was 90 minutes and had about 40 people. It was a good tour. The photo shows a section of boxwork on the ceiling of one of the caverns, maybe a 10 ft x 10 ft section.



Jewel Cave National Monument

The main attraction is Jewel Cave is the calcite crystal formations on the walls and ceilings of the caves. Comparing Wind Cave and Jewel Cave, the individual "rooms" in Wind Cave were generally smaller and not as tall. The facilities (path through the cave, stairs, lighting) was more modern in Jewel Cave, so a better experience with that. The photo shows some calcite stalactites that the ranger guide lit up with her flashlight - the biggest ones were may 8 inches long. Our tour was 80 min and had about 40 people; another good tour.



Hiking: Hell Canyon Trail in Black Hills National Forest

• time: 2:16:50
• distance: 5.62 mi
• average pace: 24:19
• elevation gain: 998 ft (corrected)
• comments: This was a spectacular hike! The hike was a long, skinny loop. The first half of the hike went down the floor of the canyon, which was pretty and pleasant. The rock walls were interesting, and the canyon got pretty narrow. We saw three female bighorn sheep near/on the trail and waited for them to move off (one photo shows them).
• comments: Then when we got to the far end of the skinny loop, the trail climbed up the wall of the canyon, and we spent most of the rest of the hike on the canyon wall looking down. A little thrill from the exposure, but if you were paying attention, it wasn't dangerous. It reminded me of the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park, except we saw ZERO other people the whole time. Excellent views!

 

[nancipants]

Amazing pictures! Looks like you're having a wonderful trip.

 

[avondale]

Aug. 13, 2025
Next part of South Dakota Hiking Trip

I wasn't sure that I was going to post every day, but there are a lot of good photos!

Wednesday (Aug. 13)

Hiking: summit of Black Elk Peak

• time: 2:56:45
• distance: 6.48 mi
• average pace: 27:16
• elevation gain: 1370 ft (corrected)
• comments: Black Elk Peak is the highest mountain in the US east of the Rocky Mountains, with an elevation of 7244 ft. This hike was reasonably scenic, but the point was to summit, so there was a lot of uphill. Reasonably moderate until the last 0.5 mi or so, and then it got really steep with what I call "giant steps". There is a fire tower on the peak, so the last bit was built up with stone and metal steps. Fantastic views!
• comments: This was a very busy hike, which was expected for a summit hike. A fun bit was that there are a lot if mica flakes in the rocks and dirt, so it looked like someone sprinkled a lot of fairy dust along the trail.

After we got back to our rental house and were cleaned up and relaxing, my husband saw two elk with impressive racks walk by our front window. (We are staying in Rapid City on a typical housing block with houses all next to each other for many blocks.) After they walked by, I went out on the front porch to get a photo. They walked two houses down, nibbling plants on the way. That's the end of the block, and they seemed to take a left turn in the last yard on the block. Elk are quite a bit bigger than the white-tailed deer back east.

 

[avondale]

Aug. 14, 2025
Next part of South Dakota Hiking Trip

I wasn't sure that I was going to post every day, but there are a lot of good photos!

Thursday (Aug. 14)
Hiking: Devil's Tower National Monument

• time: 2:46:27
• distance: 7.1 mi
• average pace: 23:26
• elevation gain: 1031 ft (corrected)
• comments: Devil's Tower itself is absolutely amazing! It is just this freakishly huge monolith in the middle of nowhere - it is 867 ft. tall! I love the geology of granite columns, so this was great. (We have also been to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, where there are similar columns.)
• comments: We strung together almost all of the trails in the monument for our hike - it was almost a 2-hour drive from Rapid City, so we were going to get our money's worth, so to speak. The scenery was nothing special compared to what we've seen in the last few days, except that the Tower is always there dominating things. One part of the trail did go through very red rocks and dirt, reminiscent of a lot of Utah. The innermost loop trail was paved and had lots of people, but the rest was pretty empty.
• comments: We did see climbers on the Tower in several places. I marked one in a photo and zoom-in. The bird was a yellow-shafted flicker, we found out with some Googling later.

 

[avondale]

Aug. 15, 2025
Next part of South Dakota Hiking Trip

I wasn't sure that I was going to post every day, but there are a lot of good photos!

Friday (Aug. 15)
We spent most of the day in Badlands National Park. An unusual thing about this park is that it does not have that many trails, especially longer trails. Instead, visitors are allowed to hike anywhere they want - off-trail. That is just so weird to me, since usually national parks don't want you walking off the trail in order to not destroy plants and habitat. The rock formations are so weird and steep in the Badlands that I really wouldn't be brave enough to strike out on my own for any distance, and in fact the hiking we did on some of the "trails" showed how slow and treacherous it could be.

Hiking: Window Trail, Badlands National Park

• time: 0:06:35
• distance: 0.21 mi
• average pace: 30:56
• elevation gain: 3.3 ft (uncorrected) - just for laughs
• comments: This was a easy-peasy stroll down a boardwalk to an overlook.
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Hiking: Notch Trail, Badlands National Park

• time: 0:44:59
• distance: 1.31 mi
• average pace: 34:23
• elevation gain: 143 ft (corrected)
• comments: This was a short but technical trail among the weird rock formations. Early on, there was a wooden ladder to get folks up a level in the rocks. There were enough people on the trail that this created a bottleneck.
• comments: Once up the ladder, a lot of the trail was on an exposed shelf edge, and then it had scrambling over rock formations. The trail led to a great overlook.
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Hiking: Door Trail, Badlands National Park

• time: 0:37:10
• distance: 1.35 mi
• average pace: 27:31
• elevation gain: 87 ft (corrected)
• comments: The first part of this trail was on a boardwalk and then the rest was walking over the really weird, knobby, rocky landscape. The trail ended at a great viewpoint. the landscape was just surreal.
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Hiking: Medicine Loop and Castle Trails, Badlands National Park

• time: 1:22:13
• distance: 3.99 mi
• average pace: 20:37
• elevation gain: 102 ft (corrected)
• comments: The first part of this loop was mostly through prairie with views of the rock formations farther away. In the second part of the loop, we got much closer to and wandered through some of the rock formations.
• comments: Fortunately this hike was pretty flat because it was HOT and after a week of hiking, my legs are getting tired.
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After all of the hikes, we went to Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (part of the National Parks). The main museum has a lot of info about the Minuteman missiles, the cold war with Russia, and the chain of command that would be needed to launch nuclear missiles. Then we went to a second site where they have preserved a control room from a past Minuteman II Missile site - only to find out you can't see it without a guided tour (which we did not have). Then we went to a third site where they have a "training" Minuteman II Missile still in its silo - it is glassed over, and you can look down into it.

Maybe kind of an odd thing to visit, but we'll probably never be back to South Dakota to visit it again, so if it was interesting to it, why not. Also, they had in the first museum the Dominoes pizza box cover spoof that you can see at the top of the NPS site (if it shows the same images every time): https://www.nps.gov/mimi/index.htm

I don't know why my photo is displaying upside down - it is correct when I look at it in a viewer.




We are flying home tomorrow! Then we're going to need rest from our vacation, LOL!

 

[avondale]

Aug. 16, 2025
Next part of South Dakota Hiking Trip

One more post about this, because it was kind of fun. Rapid City is "The City of Presidents" because of its proximity to Mt. Rushmore. In order to attract more people to its downtown, it put up a bunch of life-sized statues of past Presidents around downtown. This morning for my run (one more new state that I have run in!), I ran downtown and stopped by a bunch of the statues. Both Garmin and this website only allow 10 photos per entry, so I took photos of 10.

• T+D 131, 2% effect, T 68 F
• time: 42:05
• distance: 3.37 mi
• average pace: 12:29 (GAP ave pace: 12:43)
• splits: 12:23, 12:06, 12:54, 12:41
• ave HR: 128 BPM - within my target range
• elevation gain: 165 ft (uncorrected)
• route: Mostly 5th and 4th St in Rapid City
• Obama
• Franklin Roosevelt
• Coolidge
• Truman
• Madison (he was only as tall as me!)
• Jefferson
• Carter
• Washington
• Reagan
• Eisenhower

 

[LSUlakes]

Love all the pics from the hiking! It looks some awesome out there!! Hope you had a safe trip home and thanks for sharing!

 

[avondale]

Week of Aug. 18 - 24, 2025

Saga of our return home
Well, unfortunately we had an AWFUL trip back home last weekend. We were flying from Rapid City through Chicago to DC on Saturday, Aug. 17. We were apprehensive about going through Chicago, but little did we know how bad it was going to be. There were thunderstorms in Chicago that afternoon, so our flight was late leaving Rapid City.

By the time we got to Chicago, we circled once, and then they told us because of the weather in Chicago and our fuel status, we had to divert to Peoria. Peoria?!? Peoria is a very small airport and almost 10 flights were diverted there, and they were just overwhelmed. Initially they told us that we were going to refuel and leave right after that and go to Chicago.

But between the weather and the fact that the Peoria airport just didn't have enough people to handle things, this was very slow. Our pilots timed out and could not fly again until after a rest period. They told us a new crew was coming on a flight FROM Chicago, and we would leave after they got here. But that would be awhile, so we deplaned.

Well, that never happened. The flight bringing the new crew was canceled due to weather. We were supposed to arrive in Chicago at about 4pm. At 9 - 10pm, we were deplaning in Peoria. After waiting an hour or so there to find out what was happening (not enough gate agents for good communication), we were told our flight was delayed until 10:30am the next day, so we were stuck in Peoria for the night. There were no rental cars for one-way rentals (fewer than 3-hour drive to Chicago, but everyone was trying that).

We did get a hotel. Peoria is apparently too small for Uber or Lyft, so we got in the virtual queue for a cab ride. We got to our hotel after 1am. Supposedly our luggage was going to be taken off the plane for us, but we didn't get it before our cab showed up - we heard later that it didn't get to the baggage claim until like 3:30am.

We got back to the airport by 8:30am or so, just to be sure. A bunch more delays (more thunderstorms in Chicago, even in the morning), but we did get to Chicago in the early afternoon. My husband had been continuously changing/updating our flights from Chicago to the DC area to try to find the most likely flights we could make that would also be earliest. We ended up having to split up, with him going into Dulles (where the car was) and me going into National. I was supposed to leave a bit earlier....but then my flight started getting delayed. I changed to be on the flight after that, which was a good thing because I arrived at National about midnight but that flight didn't arrive until about 3:30am. (My husband got in about 9pm.) But unfortunately my suitcase didn't make that last change...it got delivered to me the next day.

What a pain in the neck! We will never connect through Chicago in the summer again. It was such a huge waste of time for everyone involved.

Next plans for running
I've been a bit adrift on what I want to do for trail running since my knee arthritis diagnosis. I had been planning to gradually improve my hill running and power hiking in order to be able to do trail races with more technicality and vert. But that seems unwise now.

I was thinking more about what I really like about trail running. There's the aspect of being outside and surrounded by nature, of course. To some extent I could do that on our paved trails around where we live. But those are pretty busy, and I like having more solitude. Something that I was realizing before this hiking trip and during the hiking trip is that I really like the challenge of doing something new and (somewhat) difficult. I've also been looking back at photos of our past hiking trips, and that feeling was reinforced.

A running blogger that I read was talking about her upcoming TransRockies Run (now in the past), which is a multi-day stage race/event in the Rockies. I thought immediately "I would love to do that!" but this is their last year for it, LOL. The company does some other smaller events like that, but most are times of year that I can't do because of work.

So I'm a bit stymied at the moment. Hopefully I'll get some of my leg/knee strength built up again this fall and while doing that, I'll figure out my plans.


For the fall, I made a 14-week training plan for the Tuckahoe 25k on Nov. 22, 2025. This is a relatively local race on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. It's supposed to be relatively flat, although they don't have a course map available (I've emailed them - how do you run the race for many years and not post a course map?). I plan to try to improve my speed a bit, since this race should not be overly challenging in terms of distance, vert, or technicality. I'm going to continue to run only 4 days per week and do a hike on one weekend day like I did this summer, so we'll see how that seems to affect my training, as well.


Monday after work: walk on treadmill

• time: 1:25:25
• distance: 5.0 mi
• average pace: 17:05
• incline: 0%

Tuesday

• Before breakfast:
  • Unilateral strength
    • 4 x 6 each leg - straight leg reverse lunges with 20-lb vest + 16 lb
    • 4 x 6 each leg - one-leg hamstring curl with 23-lb band
    • 4 x 6 each leg - heel taps from low step with 20-lb best + 8 lb
    • 4 x 6 each leg - hip airplanes with 20 lb
  • Foam rolling and stretching
• After work:
  • Hill repeat HIIT -- 13min easy + 3 x [7 x (20sec sprint uphill + 20sec walk downhill) + 4min walk downhill]
    • T+D 137, 3% effect, T 72 F
    • time: 40:01
    • distance: 2.94 mi
    • repeat splits: 9:24, 8:32, 9:46, 8:45, 8:27, 8:45, 9:48, 8:43, 8:47, 8:56, 8:06, 8:41, 9:02, 9:19, 8:09, 8:32, 8:51, 8:38, 9:09, 9:22, 9:23
    • elevation gain: 203 ft (corrected)
    • route: neighborhood loop 1

Wednesday

• Before breakfast:
  • Upper body strength
    • Superset
      • 3 x 5 - triceps push-ups with 20-lb vest
      • 3 x 5 - dumbbell reverse-grip rows with 26.25 lb per arm
      • 3 x 5 - dumbbell pull-overs with 35 lb
    • Superset
      • 3 x 1 - unassisted chin-ups
      • 3 x 5 - front raises with 15 lb per arm
      • 3 x 5 - dumbbell reverse flyes with 15 lb per arm
      • 3 x 5 - deep swimmer's press with 15 lb per arm
  • Foam rolling and stretching
• After work:
  • 40 min easy on trail
    • T+D 153, 5% effect, T 83 F
    • time: 40:01
    • distance: 3.07 mi
    • average pace: 13:01 (GAP ave pace: 12:59)
    • splits: 13:07, 12:49, 13:06, 13:25
    • ave HR: 133 BPM - within my target range
    • elevation gain: 187 ft (uncorrected)
    • route: Northwest Branch Trail
    • comments: I did two 20-sec uphill strides after the run was completed.

Thursday

• Before breakfast:
  • Core
    • 90-sec plank with 20-lb vest
    • 20 starfish
    • 20 dead bugs
    • 20 bird dogs
    • 20 each side flutter kicks
    • 20 bicycle crunches with hold
    • 5 10-sec hollow-body holds
    • 2 30-sec side planks
    • 20 double leg lift/lowers
  • Foam rolling and stretching
• After work:
  • Tempo intervals - 15 min easy + 2 x (5 min tempo + 2 min walk) + 15 min easy
    • T+D 133, 2.5% effect, T 69 F
    • time: 44:01
    • distance: 3.7 mi
    • tempo splits: 10:11, 9:42
    • elevation gain: 120 ft (uncorrected)
    • route: Sligo Creek Trail
    • comments: This route was paved, so it was not a trail run.
    • comments: You can tell the first half is uphill, and the second half is downhill!

Friday

• Before breakfast:
  • Workout 2
    • 3 x 5 - heels-elevated suitcase squats with 52.5 lb + 20-lb vest
    • superset
      • 3 x 5 each arm - one-arm rows on bench with 30 lb
      • 3 x 5 - wide push-ups with 20-lb vest
    • 3 x 5 each leg - bench step-up-and-overs with 20-lb vest
    • superset
      • 3 x 5 - parallel-bar dips
      • 3 x 5 - supermans with 5-s hold
  • Stretching
• After dinner: walk on treadmill
  • time: 1:27:01
  • distance: 5.1 mi
  • average pace: 17:02
  • incline: 0%

Saturday

• After breakfast: 2-hr tennis doubles practice
• Before dinner:
  • 70 min LR on trail
    • T+D 139, 3% effect, T 83 F
    • time: 1:10:00
    • distance: 5.26 mi
    • average pace: 13:19 (GAP ave pace: 13:07)
    • splits: 13:16, 13:00, 13:45, 13:23, 13:19, 12:38
    • ave HR: 142 BPM - within my target range
    • elevation gain: 302 ft (uncorrected)
    • route: Valley Trail, Rock Creek National Park

Sunday afternoon: hiking at Triadelphia Reservoir

• time: ~2 hr
• distance: ~5.85 mi
• average pace: ~20:30
• comments: When I paused the hike partway through, I accidentally deleted it. These stats are estimated from the remainder of the hike. Grrr.
• comments: This hike is on land that is run by a different agency than the usual county or state parks we go to, and they actually charge a per-person fee. The hike was ok, but definitely not something we'll be going back for, considering the cost.

Health

The issue with my left glute has become annoying. I'm not doing the hip thrust exercises until I have the dry needling done in a couple weeks.

 

[WillRunForPizza]

That is truly a nightmare travel experience! Glad you finally made it back.