Dancing Through Dirt

After the tough run yesterday, I headed to Jacobsburg for a moderate trail run.  Yesterday, I got some new trail shoes.  I was at the Crossings and saw some Adidas Kanadia TR 4 shoes for only 50 bucks.  They were nice and light weight, so I decided to try them.  I've been looking for a lighter weight trail shoe.

I started in the afternoon because there was a chat on nutrition on the Lehigh Valley Running Scene website.  It was pretty good and it's something I need to work more on.  I'm going to start tracking calories, carbs, fat and protein next week.  I really don't watch what I eat and I should.

I started off on the flat section of trail and then crossed the street through some of my favorite sections.  I didn't want to run too hard, so I was actually in between a moderate and easy pace.  I do find the slower pace hard though, especially going uphill.  It seems to take forever, going a lot more steps.

The hills aren't too bad, but just challenging enough.  I love the section that I started at because it's narrow and I rarely encounter anyone.  I was surprised that I the one section is dry.  It has rained a lot lately and that section was a stream last time I ran there after a rain.  This trail winds around and I can fly through it.  It is like dancing through dirt, with only some rocks around.

I was curious how this would hold up under rocks.  It held up, but there weren't too many rocks.  I'm still afraid these lightweight shoes might not hold up and cause me to twist an ankle.  The only problem I had though was getting stuck in the mud.

The usually muddy section was just that today.  One part even had standing water, so I went through the mud next to it.  My one shoe stuck in the mud and I was forced to hop back into the mud with the other foot.  I then got out of it, but the shoes felt like bricks with all the mud caked on it.  Eventually, the mud fell off and it was much better.  I ran through the mud lighter on my feet the next time.  That's a lesson learned.  It's important to be light on your feet anytime when running and obviously especially when going through mud.

The finish was fairly uneventful.  There's some mild hills, but it's not too bad.  It was pretty fast because some of it was run on roads before getting back on the trail.  Even though I passed the 4 mile mark, I decided to run until I got back to the parking lot.  That ended up being 4.5 miles.  As I finished, I passed the Muhlenberg Cross Country team.  I wish I was faster, because I would've asked if I could run with them.

I realized today that I have too many shoes.  I'm going to have to get rid of at least 2 old pairs of shoes.  I might keep my first pair of marathon shoes as a memento.  I'll have to get rid of them at next week's group run.

Tomorrow is a scheduled fartlek run.  It'll be 5 miles.  I'm thinking I might run on a rail train.  I saw a new section of the D&L train is now officially opened.  I might run there.in the morning.  I'm still not sure if that's exactly where I want to run.  I'll decide in the morning.

4.50 miles - 42:06 (9:21 pace)