Jim Thorpe 800 Repeats

I was undecided when to run after the BCR group run on Saturday.  When I was outside on Sunday, it was brutally cold and windy.  No way I was running then, especially since I wanted to incorporate speed into my run.  Looking at the weather for this morning, I saw it was still going to be incredibly cold and windy.  It was going to warm up in the afternoon, so I decided I would run then.

When I was with the BCR group the other day, people were talking about possibly running the D&L Trail at Jim Thorpe.  I had not run that area before, so I thought that would be a good idea for today and the future.  There are mountains all around Jim Thorpe and it is a quaint little town.  Sometime, I want to run the trails there.  For now, I was just going to run fast on the flat D&L Trail.

I wanted to start out in downtown Jim Thorpe and run north.  When I got to the parking lot though, I saw that they charged for parking near downtown.  I wasn't going to pay to park for a run.  Luckily, I looked at a map earlier and saw I could park and run on the other side of the river in East Jim Thorpe.

First, I had to find a bathroom.  After having no luck in town.  I found one in the park on the east side of the river.  There were a lot places to park my car and it was a cool area to run at.  I started walking around at first because I wasn't sure if I was going to run there.  I went south on the trail and over the Lehigh River.  Just past the river crossing, the trail was snow covered.  It was in the shade.  I knew the path would be rough if I tried to run to downtown Jim Thorpe.

I said that it was warmer in the afternoon, but it was still cold.  It was around 30 degrees and fairly windy.  The wind was especially prevalent near the river.  I knew that that would make the run a bit tough.  I wore ColdGear and tights as well as gloves and a headband.

The plan was to run 4 X 800 meter repeats with 400 meters of active recovery.  That would be sandwiched between a mile warm up and cool down.  I have not tried running fast at all since November, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I hoped for the pace to be around 6:30, but really anything under 7 minute pace would've been satisfying.

I started off by heading south.  I figured by the time I got back to my car, I'd be close to a mile.  I went out and over the cool train bridge.  I then went over the river and it was cold over the water.  I turned around at the snowy part of the trail and was .36 miles into the run. 

The road into the park is long.  The D&L Trail itself was soggy and soft.  While I want soft surfaces, I'm worried when they are too soft.  I think that is what messed with my quads about a month ago.  I opted to run on the paved surface when I could.

Since the road was long, I was nearly able to run the entire first fast segment on it.  I didn't feel great in the warm up and usually I can tell a lot from that first mile.  That was definitely the case today.  I struggled with my breathing in the first speed segment and my legs didn't feel great either.  I kept pushing though because I knew it wasn't long and I'd only be running 4 hard segments.

The final .10 miles in that first segment was back on the trail.  That would be the last time that I would run on the trail.  It was just way too soft.  I decided that since I wasn't going very far, I would just stay on the road.  I could basically run every segment along the road without needing to turn around.  The road was almost a mile long.

I probably didn't recover enough in between the 1st and 2nd segments and I paid for it in that 2nd segment.  After the 1st one was run at 6:40, the 2nd one was much tougher.  I struggled to keep it under a 7 minute pace.  I was able to finish at a 6:56 pace though.  Some of that was because I finished the repeat by really pushing it.

I slowed down in 2nd recovery period.  That was a big help when I started the 3rd segment.  I still was struggling with each one of these segments though.  I was breathing hard, my legs felt weak and my form wasn't smooth either.  Still, my times were decent.  I finished the 3rd segment with a solid 6:47 pace.  I was dieing by this point, but knew I could make it through one more segment.

Early on, I had taken the headband and gloves off.  I got hot pretty quickly when running fast.  I'm sure that didn't help my pace.  I dropped the gloves off at my car.  The wind seemed to bother me at different spots in each direction.

Before I knew it, I was into the final fast segment.  I felt weak and dead most of the run, but it was even worse by this final repeat.  I just kept at it, knowing that I was almost done.  When I got to the end of the paved parking lot, I looped around the lot.  I finished up just past the end of the lot with a 6:52 pace.  That required a lot of effort at the end of the segment.

While I didn't feel great or strong.  I finished the run by hitting my goal pace.  I was clearly rusty.  I haven't run fast in a long time and it showed.  I really couldn't run all that hard either because I was winded fairly early in each segment.  I wasn't capable of putting forth as much effort as I would've liked.  I did give what I had today though.  I'll get stronger as I run faster more often.

It was a great location to run with all the mountains around.  I actually could've run even farther along the road before turning around.  I forgot just how long it was.  I would've liked to have explored the D&L Trail more, but conditions didn't allow it.  I'll have to run there again and I'll have to check out the numerous trails in the area too.  I was on top of the mountain in my car and the views were amazing.  The road coming in had a wide shoulder and it could make for an awesome climb up the mountain.

5 miles - 39:18 (7:52 pace)