I was quite sore on Sunday after the half marathon. I didn't stretch afterward, so that probably didn't help. I was still sore yesterday, so I took off. I felt go today, so I wanted to get back to work.
The plan was for 6 easy miles. Now that I figured out that I can run with an insole in my shoe, I'm going to start building back up. This week my mileage should be somewhere in the 40s.
After my half marathon was over, I signed up for the Run for the Diamonds race on Thanksgiving Day in Berwick. I held off on signing up for it because my foot was bothering me. I signed up last year too and missed it because of health problems. I didn't want to do that again.
Run for the Diamonds is still my favorite race of all time. The only time I ran it was back in 1999. I struggled so bad going up the big hill. I had side stickers. However, I battled through it and flew downhill. Amazingly, I ran the 9 miles in a 61 something. Since I haven't trained much on hills, I don't have a real goal for the race. I'd like to break 63 minutes, but we'll just have to see how it plays out.
Anyway, back to today's run. I haven't run on the Saucon Rail Trail in awhile, so I decided to do that. This time though, I thought I would run from the other end of the trail. I was at DeSales University for a cross country meet a couple weeks ago and the trail ends right next to there. I've run most of the trail, but never this end of it.
There is a nice park there. It has a football fields, baseball fields and most importantly a heated bathroom. That was excellent since the temperature wasn't quite into the 40s yet when I started. Of course, I also didn't want to leave the warmth of the bathroom either.
I wasn't sure what to wear. I wore a long sleeve tech shirt from the Philadelphia Marathon. Since I wasn't running hard, I figured I could wear more. I decided to put on the fleece vest that I bought last year too. I haven't worn it to run yet and wanted to test it out. It is made by Columbia. Some guy started just before me in just a T-shirt and shorts. I wasn't that crazy, although I still stuck with the shorts.
Another reason that I didn't want to wear too little was that I didn't actually know where the trail started out. Turns out that it was just a short walk from the park. It leaves the park with a paved uphill. I didn't want to start uphill, so I walked until it flattened out. That didn't take too long.
As usual, I started out a bit sluggish. That's especially not surprising after the hard half marathon a two days ago. My quads were sore again. I guess that's just going to be a regular thing for awhile. The zippers on the pockets of my vest rattled. That was annoying and I guess I'll have to tape them in the future.
The first mile was sure tough. It took at least a half mile before my legs came in at all. The quads felt better after that, but my right hamstring was definitely still quite sore. I plugged along though. I decided at that point that I would be cutting this run short. I figured I would go to 4 miles (2 miles out and 2 miles back).
The first mile was tough. I was on the Upper Saucon Township part of the trail. This whole trail is beautiful. There are lots of amazing houses, a wonderful golf course and a creek too. It is definitely more scenic than a lot of the trails through cornfields. There was a huge pile of trees near the golf course. I assume it was all the trees knocked down during the storm throughout the township.
Speaking of trees down, there were two of them down in the Upper Saucon portion of the trail. The second one nearly blocked the whole trail, but there was just enough room for one person to get under/around it. I guess they cleared some of it away. I assume this part of the trail isn't maintained that much. There are some "No Winter Maintenance" signs. I'll have to keep that in mind when it snows and I am looking for somewhere to run.
I looked at my overall pace as I approached the 2nd mile and I noticed that it was dropping fast. It was around an 8:37 and my 1st mile was 8:53. That meant this mile was quite fast. It ended up being an 8:20. Fairly good speed and I wasn't working hard at all either.
Since I was feeling much better, I decided to run another half mile. That would get me to 5 miles for the run. Not quite the original plan, but good enough. This last half mile before turning around felt easy. Oddly, going this direction, I didn't recognize a thing. I knew that I must've run this far down from the other direction. Then I saw a parking area that I was familiar. Shortly after that, I turned around. Things looked much more recognizable in this direction.
I quickly found out why going out seemed easy. Coming back started off very tough. It wasn't a steep uphill, but I was definitely climbing slightly. You can sure feel the difference. Suddenly I had to work a little hard. The 3rd mile slowed back down to 8:29.
I got distracted for a bit by two deer. They came from the golf course and jumped over a fence that was probably around 7 foot high with barbed wire over the top. I didn't see them jump it clearly, but I caught it out of the corner of my eye. It was impressive. The one deer was definitely a buck with some nice antlers. I didn't get a chance to count the points as it ran off along the trail. It was probably the biggest deer I've seen while running.
After that encounter, it was back to running. I think the trail flattened out more. I definitely felt better and I flew through these final 2 miles. I wasn't putting out any more effort either. I'm sure closing quickly on the guy that started before me was a factor too. I was really catching him, but couldn't quite do it before the 5 mile point. In another minute, I would've blown right by him. I wasn't actually trying to get by him or I could've just sprinted right past him. I wanted to reel him in though.
I was finally at the 5 mile point and the finish. I finished much faster than I started. I ran the last 2 miles in 8:10 and then 8:05. I felt good and didn't work too hard. It was a perfect recovery run. The vest worked out fairly well. It definitely kept my core warm. It wasn't necessary today, but it will be a big help over the winter. I might not have to wear my ColdGear as often.
As I was stretching in the parking lot, a cute girl ran by. I was a little disappointed that I didn't see any more of them running on the trail. It was right next to a college. That's one thing I sure do miss about Philly. So many attractive woman on the trail. It can be quite motivating and cause you to run faster too.
Today was a solid run and good to get back into things. I'm sort of glad that I just missed my half marathon goal. That just makes me hungrier and hungrier. I'm chomping at the bit to get faster and faster. I set another lofty goal of running a spring marathon under 3 hours. I am definitely going to need help from my fast friends to do that. I think it is realistic though. Right now, I project as a 3:18 marathon. That's a full 6 months to drop around 20 minutes off. Even if I fail at that, I should be able to get a 3:05, which would put me into Boston.
5 miles - 41:59 (8:24 pace)
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