I decided to go somewhere different today. Since I'm running Mount Penn in Reading for my night race in a few weeks, I took my training there. I'd never been there before and didn't have a decent trail map with me, so I winged it.
I knew from a map that I had that there was a trail that sort of ran with Skyline Drive from the Pagoda. There is a Pagoda at the top of the mountain and a beautiful view of Reading below. I found the trail and started off on my run. It was very tough early with some serious climbs. I actually struggled with it and walked quite a bit. It wasn't the rockiest trail I've been on, but there were still a lot of rocks.
What also made it tough was that there were a lot of old leaves there, hiding a lot of the rocks. The trail markings weren't exactly great either. There was no clear worn path to make it obvious. I started following the lavender trail after a short distance. With the rocks and the sloped terrain, I nearly fell a few times. Finally, I just gave up after about a mile and headed back. I found the actual trail through one section that I ran earlier. It wasn't as steep as where I went through. Plus, for some reason there was a bunch of trash in the woods, like a stroller. That's such a shame.
When I got back to the Pagoda, I decided to head down the mountain on the road after running a short trail section. I remembered seeing a sign for "bridal path" while driving around. It was a little tough finding the blazed trails as I was driving around, so I wasn't sure where to run. After a couple switchbacks on the road, I didn't see the one with the path, so I turned around and headed back up the mountain.
I wasn't feeling all that great anyway, so my goal was to at least get 3 of the 6 scheduled miles done. On the way back up, I did find the "bridal path" along the road. I'm not sure how I missed it on the way down. It had a gate and everything. It was good for about a half mile or so, but then it became too overgrown to run so I turned around to head back up the road.
By the time I got to my car, I was now approaching the 4 mile mark. Right around there, it was a tough uphill section. My legs and body were beat at this point. I also didn't want to run too much further on the road. I strongly debated quitting at mile 4, but decided to keep going. I had been to the nearby fire tower and it looked like there might be some trails there.
Before I got to the fire tower, I came across a park for model airplanes. There was a sign for the yellow blazed Ferndale Trail. It said 2.6 miles long. This was finally what I was looking for. It was a very wide and well maintained trail. I think it may have been a fire road. It was pretty straight downhill and very fast. There were a few rocks, but it wasn't too bad. I'd imagine this is likely the path of the night trail race that is upcoming. It is supposed to be on one of the main trails, probably so people don't get lost or hurt in the dark. I cruised along downhill and felt so much better now that I was on the trail.
The trail crossed one road and became part of the red trail too. One section seemed like it might get really muddy. They built a nice stone type bridge over it. Shortly after that, I turned around. I had a mile left to go at that point. This was supposed to be a progression run with the last 8 minutes hard and uphill. It ended up working perfectly because after I turned around. I was going uphill. I didn't have a lot left, but I still went hard. The only other problem was that I was running into the sun. As it peaked through the trees, it made it hard to see the rocks on the ground. I managed though. I eventually got back on the road and finished up.
All in all it was a solid run. It didn't start out so great, but it was saved by finding an excellent trail. Now I'm more familiar with the area for next time. I still didn't actually find where my race check-in is at though. I have an idea now at least after looking at a map. Since I couldn't find the trails very well while driving around, I almost skipped out on running there. I'm glad I didn't though. Exploring new areas is always enjoyable and I needed that after a boring Tuesday run.
Tomorrow is an AM tempo run and the group run in the evening. I'm going to try to double up and do both this time. I'm not sure where I'll do the tempo run at. Probably somewhere flat. Hopefully the group run won't be too tough. I plan on a nice ice bath in between. I'm surprised that my legs still haven't really adjusted to the hard work lately. I think I am scheduled to back off a bit next week, so maybe that will help.
6 miles - 1:02:37 (10:26 pace)
No comments:
Post a Comment