Originally, I was hoping to run my progression run on a trail. I was still at my parents house on Wednesday morning. I thought that they Appalachian Trail might be too difficult. I elected to run through the nearby state park, Jacobsburg. That didn't work either though, as the trail was just too icy.
I headed back to the parents and ran through the neighborhoods nearby. To run 9 miles, I had to run through a lot of connecting neighborhoods. Luckily, there are some new connecting ones too that weren't there when I was younger.
I started off at a nice and comfortable pace. The weather was nice again and I only needed to run with one layer. The wind was a problem though. It wasn't a lot of wind, but it still was pretty cold on the way out. The course is quite hilly too and that didn't help.
One hill after a couple miles was quite the challenge. I battled through it and I'm definitely feeling much stronger on the hills than I was just a few months ago. After going over two more big hills, I turned it up a little. This was around mile 4. I still had 2 miles to go before really turning it up though.
Once I hit mile 6, it was time to push harder for the final three miles. My IT band was a little sore before that, but not too bad. I pushed as my watch said "low battery." Thankfully, it lasted the final three miles. Shortly after uping the pace, I came across a dog. Rather than mess with him, I turned around.
My leg started to feel dead after 7 miles. It was definitely a challenging run, as all these progression runs are. I maintained just about the same pace through all three of the final miles. My pace only dropped off by 2 seconds in the progression segment.
Because the route wasn't long enough, I had to run in my parents neighborhood a bit. Right as I was .01 miles from finishing, I encountered another dog and had to turn around again. After I stopped and walked, I turned around and saw he was still following me up the street. He was never close enough to be threatening and he was a small dog, but obviously very territorial.
I was quite tired after the workout. Today was my first day of work this week. Even after only 5 hours, my hip was quite sore. I really need to start mixing in some hip strengthening exercises. Stretching only goes so far.
This week will be close to my all time peak mileage of 40 (it will be 37). Hopefully, my body won't break down. Tomorrow, I scheduled a hilly 7 mile run. Not sure why I put that on the schedule the day after a hard run. I'm hoping to head up to Valley Forge and do some trail running. I want to get going early in the morning though. If not that, then I'll just go to Forbidden Drive. This time, I'll try to hit the trails though, instead of the path.
9 miles - 1:05:04 (7:13 pace)
No comments:
Post a Comment