It is Thursday, so this is usually LVRR Group Run night. However, I actually wanted to go to a high school basketball game and I knew that no one would show up for the run anyway, so I cancelled it. My friend, Laurie, heads up the Thursday afternoon run. I messaged her to say that I'd join her for the run, but shortly after I did that, I saw she cancelled her run too.
I decided to start where her run begins anyway. I went to the Saucon Rail Trail. Instead of starting at my usual location, at Water Street Park, I went to the south end of the trail and started at Upper Saucon Park. My plan was to run the whole trail and I figured having a different perspective would make that easier. I've only run this trail from there one other time.
Upper Saucon Park is a longer drive for me. It is right next to DeSales University. One thing I love about this trail is that people actually use it. It goes through well populated areas and isn't nearly deserted like a of other rail trails that I run on. A nice feature of this park is that the bathrooms are heated. After sitting in a warm car and then a warm bathroom, it was definitely hard to get out there and run through the cold.
The temperature at the bank that I drove by said 24 degrees. With the wind chill, it was likely in the neighborhood of 10 degrees. A lot of times, I have trouble deciding what to wear in winter. Mainly, that has to do with not wanting to sweat too much. Today, the only decision was whether to throw on a third layer. I felt comfortable in the parking lot, so I just wore my ColdGear base layer with my fleece vest over it. The vest was a great investment. It keeps my core warm and allows my arms to breath. My arms and legs don't need as much coverage. I received a pair of biking winter gloves for Christmas, so I wore those instead of my normal gloves. I don't like wearing a full hat, but this weather warranted that item. Then of course I had my tights on too. As I was walking through the parking lot, heading to the trail, I saw two women running. I said to them, "good to see I'm not the only one crazy enough to run in this." They just laughed. To my surprise, I came across two solo runners within the first mile. After that, it was mostly just a couple walkers, specifically dog walkers.
It was definitely cold at the start. My eyes watered early on, until I adjusted to the conditions. They usually only water when I bike, so that gives you an idea of how cold it was outside. I tried to make sure to take it easy. I guess I was going slow enough because my breathing wasn't compromised.
The other day, my Garmin watch band broke again. That is the 2nd time this year. I guess I'll have to buy a new one again. Because of that, I was forced to put the watch in my pocket. That meant I had no idea of how far I had gone. When I hit the first mile, I could hear it beep.
Going out was definitely cold and difficult. The wind was just steady. Thankfully, there weren't insane gusts. I have run in worse weather, but not by much. I kept moving along, all alone. I told myself that it would be worth it on the way back. I would have the wind at my back and things would get much easier.
Going out did seem to take a long time. I didn't hear my watch beep for miles 2 or 3, so I never had any idea where I was. Finally, I could see one of the road crossings up ahead. I knew it was Walnut Street and after I got there, I had about 3/4 of a mile to the Water Street crossing. That would be the end of the line for me.
I continued to just plug along. It was hard work going against the wind, but my legs felt pretty good. A few times, I was able to open my vest up more. Most of the time though, it was windy. It was so cold that the edges of the nearby creek were freezing over. We haven't been over 32 degrees in two days now.
As I approached the Water Street crossing, I took my watch out of my pocket. I was very happy to see that I was around 3.75 miles. Usually, I look at my watch long before that. That was the first time I took a peek all run. I kept the watch out and had to cross Water Street a short distance before turning around.
I was shocked when I saw that my 4th mile was run at 7:28. I didn't think I was going that hard. I was pleased that my overall pace was right around 8 minutes at this point too. The first mile was a slow 8:49. The rest of my miles actually varied quite a bit. Maybe that was from the weather conditions or maybe it was because I wasn't looking at my watch.
I headed the other direction and immediately felt warmer. I took off my hats and gloves. I thought things would get easier from here. They didn't though. It turns out that it was actually still cold and windy in this direction. Shortly after the Walnut Street crossing, I checked my watch again. I was disappointed to see that I was only at 4.65 miles. I still had a long way to go to reach my goal of 8 miles.
The way back was quite unpleasant. It got so cold that I put my gloves back on. Fighting against the wind on the way out had taken a lot out of me. I was exhausted. Add to that the fact that 6 miles was the farthest I've run lately and I was toast. My goal was to just focus on hitting that 6 mile point and then go from there. The other thing that was disappointing is that I thought I'd be going downhill to finish. If it was slightly downhill, it didn't feel like it.
I thought I heard my watch beep, so I took it out. Sure enough, I was just over 6 miles. Physically I was drained and mentally too. The good thing is my quads, which have been giving me problems, were only mildly sore. The thing that really kept me going was knowing that if I stopped early, I'd have a long walk in the freezing cold back to the car.
The next time I took my watch out to check it, I was right around 6.9 miles. I knew it wouldn't be easy, but I could win the battle at this point. I just had to keep pushing and gut it out. I sure couldn't wait to be done.
The final mile I checked my watch over and over again. I like to do that as I near the end. It makes me feel good as every step goes by. The pace continued to be just under 8 minutes. Although I felt like I was slipping and I'm sure my form was breaking down, my pace held fairly constant.
I came across a woman running the other way. This was the first runner I had encountered since early on in the workout. Then as I got to the final road crossing and inside the last quarter mile, I was surprised to see a big group of runners approaching. I was trying to figure out what group would be out running. I was also jealous because having a group would've been a big help.
I got closer and could see that it was about 6-8 guys. As I passed them, I realized they were college aged. I think they were likely a few of the guys from the DeSales team. The school was nearby. I was disappointed that I didn't see any of the female runners from that team. One of their freshmen when to Nazareth and another went to Freedom. I would recognize both of them.
I was never happier to be done with a run than this one. It seemed to take long, especially the last few miles. It was quite the battle. I was thrilled to see that my overall pace was spot on 8 minutes. Not bad considering the conditions and that I wasn't going too hard. That's the longest that I've run in over a month too.
My quads were a little sore by the end. Rather than stretch out in the cold, I opted to go into the heated bathroom. That was a good idea. As I was stretching, I noticed that my stomach was red and then realized that my legs were still quite cold too. I guess I didn't realize how much the cold and wind was bothering those two areas. I thought both were covered well enough. They are fine now, but it took some time to warm up.
I love and hate days like this. I hate the actual run itself of course. It is just miserable. I love the challenge that it provides though. Days like this in the winter make me mentally stronger in the spring and summer. If it gets tough during a race, I can just think back to today and know I made it through a difficult day before. People that skip runs on days like today will be wondering why they are behind me come May.
It is supposed to snow on Friday night. I do plan on running Saturday, but because of the snow, I don't know how many miles I'll be able to get in. That's why I wanted to make sure that I did 8 today. On Saturday, I'm thinking it will be in the 3 to 5 mile range. The BCR is meeting at Plainfield. Although running in the snow is tough, I like doing it. I'll be there if it does snow Friday. Otherwise, I'll head somewhere else because I don't want to run on the hard pavement.
8 miles - 1:03:56 (8:00 pace)
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