Saucon Rail Trail Tempo

Fall is definitely here as I witnessed along the Saucon Rail Trail today.  Leaves are falling all over the well groomed trail.  It is a cool place to run with some nice wooden fences along the trail.  It passes along and over streams as well as by some nice houses and a golf course.  They also kept some of the old signals up from the railroad days, so that's cool too.

I as I got my shoes on and got out of my car, it started to pour.  It looked like a passing shower, so I waited it out and sure enough it was gone in about 5 minutes.  I then headed out for the cloudy tempo run.  The plan was for 5 miles with the last 12 minutes at a moderate pace.

When I started off, I just concentrated on form and running tall.  That was my main focus throughout the run.  It allowed me to move along at a brisk pace.  I was breathing maybe a little harder then I should've been early on, but didn't feel like I was going too hard.  My legs felt slightly dead early on too, but they came around as well.

I just cruised along at a nice steady pace.  It was actually quite humid again once the rain lifted.  I saw two deer sitting in someone's yard along the trail.  I've seen plenty of deer before and plenty even sitting, but never in someone's yard.

When I hit the turn around a little after halfway, I took my shirt off.  That really cool me off for the tempo portion of the run.  I just kept focused on small segments.  I picked it up with a mile and a half to go.  Those last few minutes seemed to fly by.

Without overdoing it, my final mile was a speedy 7:27.  Both of the final two miles were under 8 minutes, thanks to the tempo pace.  I finished up right before a road crossing, so that worked out well.  I felt very good.

I thought about running some hill sprints, but my legs have been bothering me a bit lately.  It isn't a problem when I run, but they're sore afterward.  I might take an ice bath after tomorrow's tempo run.  My legs have really put on the mileage lately.

Tomorrow is an AM tempo run and a PM group run with the LVRR.  I think I'll likely head over to the Wilson Bike Path for the tempo run.  I've been trying to recruit more people to the group run.  I was on the LVRS chat today and might have got some new converts there.  We'll see how that turns out.  I actually like the easy pace that we've been running so far, but I want to get more people involved.

5 miles - 41:00 (8:12 pace)