Back to Climbing

The original plan for today was an easy run to introduce Michele to Jacobsburg in the afternoon.  She cancelled last night, so I checked with Kelley to see if she wanted to run Lehigh Gap in the morning instead of Friday as we were planning.  She agreed, so we met up.

It was scorching hot, even in the morning.  It is supposed to rise to 98 degrees today.  I knew running the barren mountain would be better on Friday, but I just didn't care.  I was too eager to try this route out.  I ran there a little, but I had not done any of the climbing that I was hoping for.  I have also hiked to the top and knew the views were amazing.

I had planned to run a short uphill early, then along the rail trail for awhile before climbing to the top and back down.  I figured this would probably be around 6 miles or so and a good run two days after Quadzilla.  I was actually kind of glad Michele cancelled because I recovered better from Quadzilla than I expected and wanted to do a harder day.  If she didn't cancel, I probably would've just made in a hard AM run followed by an easy PM run with her.

I said the first uphill along the trail was short, but it sure was tougher than I anticipated.  It wouldn't have been bad if we had a change to warmup.  I had to check a couple times because Kelley stayed back and wasn't on my heels.  I had to make sure she didn't stop or worse fall like she has done before.  The climb really got the lungs burning before the trail flattened out.

The LNE Trail, which is mostly an old rail bed, is maybe a third of the way up the mountain or so.  It is relatively flat after the first climb and since the zinc plant killed off the trees, there are some pretty good views.  We passed the part of the Prairie Grass Trail that I've run up before, but I decided that we would stay on the LNE Trail until the other end of the Prairie Grass Trail.

This turned out to be a bad idea.  I guess most people use the other part of the Prairie Grass Trail.  This part of the trail sure lived up to its name.  There was a nice climb and we went through some shade and ferns, but we were in high grass most of the time.  It was almost impossible to distinguish the trail at times.  We actually ended up walking a lot of it, because it was too tough to navigate.

Eventually we decided to just to head back down and climb some of the other part of the Prairie Grass Trail.  That added well over another mile to our route though and I was starting to get exhausted in the blazing sun.  We climbed the other section of the Prairie Grass Trail for a little, but I was beat and the climb was straight up and rocky.  I told Kelley that I just had to turn around.

I couldn't help myself on the descent and I just opened up and flew down the hill.  Kelley wisely ran more controlled a fell back a little.  Of course she was quickly with me again on the LNE Trail.  We ran back toward where we started for a bit, then decided to try a different route back.

We turned around and ran down the Boblink Trail.  We were on the D&L Trail that runs all the way to Northampton.  I joked and asked her if she wanted to run all the way home.  I was hoping there would be more shade on this section.  There was some, but not much.  It was disappointing.  We finished up a six miles.

It was a good run.  I was disappointed that I couldn't make it to the top.  I'm sure Kelley could've made it to the top.  What we did was enough climbing and it was probably good that I didn't do too much so soon after Quadzilla.  I really wanted her to see the top of the mountain and the spectacular views from up there.  Oh well, maybe next time.

With her job, Kelley is available to run at a lot of random times since she works at home.  That is great because I am free all the time now.  I'm sure we'll be running plenty together, not just the LVRR Group Runs.  She also doesn't know the area too well and doesn't like running alone, so it is good for me to guide her around.  The only thing that sucks is that I'm holding her back a bit right now.  She was over five minutes faster than me at Quadzilla.  Maybe when she gets to know the routes more, she can lead and pull me up these climbs.

I'm not quite sure on the plan tomorrow.  I'm definitely meeting Michele for Steps at Lafayette at 4.  I might try to sneak in a run in the AM or maybe I'll just run a little more around the track at Fisher Stadium.  I can't decide.  I'd like to put together a training plan, but with all this meeting up with people, it isn't even worth it I guess.  Things just change so much on a daily basis.  I'll just have to keep a general structure and do what I can.  I'm having so much fun running this way though.

6 miles - 1:01:13 (10:12 pace)