Lehigh Cross Country Course

I decided to stay at my parents a few extra days. Today, I ran Lehigh's 6K cross country course. I thought that running on grass would help my sore hamstring.

Early on, I struggled to run properly. Running on grass is just so different and takes some getting used to. My legs felt sore. With a short while, things improved. The course was still tougher than I anticipated.

Grass might reduce impact, but I don't find it very easy. I have to get used to the footing. At least this course was all grass, until the rocky Belmont course. There were some rolling hills and I guess they took a bit out of me.

The plan was to take it easy and use the first day back after the half marathon as a recovery run. Due to the terrain, I had to work harder than I wanted to. I kept a slow pace, but was breathing pretty hard.

Since they just had a big meet on the course on Friday, it was well marked out. It winds all through the Goodman Campus. Around the athletic fields and football stadiums and in between corn fields. It seemed like it went on forever.

I tried to run later in the morning so that the dew would be gone, but it still wasn't. I managed to get used to the damp grass though. At one point, I the course goes near their driving range. I noticed a golf ball had actually made it all the way to the course. I didn't get hit though.

My hamstring continues to be bother me. It was actually sorer on Monday than on Sunday. The extra day off didn't help. I'm going to run easy during the rest of the week and see how it feels. I really can't believe that all this rest in between runs isn't improving it. I might have to consider cross training for a bit.

I can run without pain, but it's still a long way to the marathon. I need to error on the side of caution. It really seemed like it was getting better at the end of last week. I knew the half marathon would be it up bad though. We'll just have to see how it reacts this week.

My groin was feeling much better too, but it started bothering a little bit again today. I applied plenty of ice this evening. I've been trying to sleep on my back more lately. I'm not sure if it was helping, but I was feeling better.

Tomorrow is a long 8 mile run, but I'm going to take it very easy. I'll probably just do the Falls Bridge loop. I'd love to go to Valley Forge Park to run on Thursday, but that might hurt my knees too much.

It feels good to be so far along in my marathon program, but I can't believe how far I have to go yet. I still have over 30 workouts remaining and a month and a half. That's definitely a lot of time to continue to improve too if I get healthy. I'm still looking forward to the remainder of my training.

6K - 31:26 (8:26 pace)