Almost 4 years to the day I started this blog (April 28, 2009), I am now writing my 500th post. That was the beginning of my many comeback attempts. In that time, I have wrote about nearly every workout that I have done. The fact that I'm only up to 500 in that time period shows how many roadblocks there have been in my training. It has been a lot of ups and downs. Most of the downs were health related. Crohn's Disease has slowed me, but it hasn't stopped me and I'm going strong now.
Ever since I began running, I kept a basic running log. It consisted of the distance, time, weather and how I felt on that day. I really like writing, so when I made my comeback the first time around, I decided to just write about every run. It is great to look back on and will be even better to do so down the road. I can remember the times when I was doing well or even see areas of my training that need improving. When I ran while living in Philadelphia, I was on my own. I wrote about my runs, but I was the only one who read them. Since moving back to the Lehigh Valley, I got involved in the social aspect of the local running scene and made a lot of running friends. I figured that I would share my running and training with others and since people continue reading it, I continue to share it.
My latest comeback began on April 18, 2012. I've now been running for over a year with only minor health issues. That is close to as long of a period as I've ever been able to train. If I can ever get a solid 5 consecutive years of running together, it will be amazing how far I'll progress. When I made that comeback at night on the Nor-Bath Trail over a year ago, I could only run one mile and it took me 10:09. Now, that would be quite the slow mile for me. I run those kind of times on challenging hilly trail miles. It is amazing to think how far I've come in just a year.
After a great run yesterday, today's run was pretty good as well. It was a beautiful day as I headed out to Trexler. If anything, it was too warm. The temperature got into the 70s. I wore a short sleeve shirt, but it was too hot. A singlet would've been more appropriate.
I was going to meet some faster friends, Tim and Aaron, and run there with them in the evening. However, the weather looked kind of questionable, so I just headed out on my own in the afternoon. The storms actually ended up staying away.
I have the 2nd half of the Quadzilla course down pretty well. I need to get more familiar with the beginning of the course. I headed to the start area by the zoo today. I was hoping to run the full 9.3 mile course. I still haven't run an entire loop on my own. I've always done it only in a group setting.
I started off easy. I had a hard run yesterday that I had to recover from. I also needed to take it easy if I wanted to run the entire loop, especially on this hot day. The start is great because it begins downhill. My calves were a bit stiff, but overall things weren't too bad.
It is always entertaining watching cars that get to the ford of the Jordan Creek. They don't realize they have to drive over the water to leave. That happened to a car as I was heading to the covered bridge trail. Eventually, they had fun and flew through the creek.
Last time I ran this way, I had a lot of trouble in the beginning of the main trail. It is an uphill section. Today, I felt better and it didn't seem anywhere near as bad. I couldn't believe how short it was. I was up it in no time.
I knew it was going to be a tough day. The hills weren't bad and my legs didn't feel terrible, but the heat was brutal. I was sweating like crazy and I was only a mile into the run. The good thing was that I got to take a look the course again. I don't know this area too well.
There were some up and down sections early on and I crossed the road around a mile into the run. The tough uphill was yet to come. That came after the bridge over the creek. This was a big obstacle because I have never successfully run up the entire hill. It isn't steep, but it is very long. It does get steeper near the top. I just battled and battled and kept running. Eventually, I saw the top of the steepest part and I made it all the way to the top without walking. That was a huge boost.
Right near the top, I hit mile 2. These first 2 miles were 9:45 and 9:27. That was pretty solid. At this point, I was near KidsPeace. There was an opportunity to recover at this point. It was now flat or rolling hills. The thing that was difficult was that a lot of the leaves still aren't even on the trees. A lot of the trail is typically barren, but even the areas that are normally shaded were exposed.
As I headed downhill towards Old Packhouse Road, I took it easy. I was trying to prepare for the difficult hill up ahead. I didn't know if I could make it all the way to the Environmental Center, but I had to try. I struggled, but I made it most of the way up the hill. Right near the crest of the hill, I gave in and started walking. If I was planning on quitting near that point, I could've kept going, but I wanted to save myself. I did make it nearly 3.5 mile without needing to walk. That was pretty good.
After the Environmental Center, I went downhill and could recover a little. I knew another really tough hill was coming up though. I can make it up this one when I start from the Environmental Center, but it isn't easy. Today, I figured that wouldn't happen, due to all of the earlier hills.
I was correct. I was able to battle up the big hill, but I only made it 2/3 of the way to the top. I didn't want to kill myself. I had recovered well because it wasn't my lungs that limited me. It was my legs. It was just too hot to continue on at this point. It would've been interested in seeing how far I could go, but not without water in this heat.
I went back down the hill and then headed across the trail and on to the road down to the ford. I ran over the creek and then back up the paved hill to the zoo. It was difficult, but I sputtered up the hill. I finished up with 5 miles. The one with all the hills ended up being 10:39, but every other mile was under 10 minutes.
I didn't run as far as I would've liked, but I ran as well as I could've hoped for over the first part of the course. I made it up some hills that I wasn't sure that I could run. I now know that I can make it up every hill, except for the two big hills near the end of the race course. I can run every other hill as long I'm only running the course in halves. Now, I just need to run the entire course without walking those hills. That will take some work, but I have almost 3 months to do that. Running here so often is really starting to pay off.
I do still want to get through the whole loop on my own. That is a big goal. Then, I can progress from there. Perhaps in the future, I need to do a better job of making sure to just focus on one hill at a time and then recover wherever I can. Obviously I could get through the loop, but I'd like to do so with as little walking as possible.
I need some decent mileage tomorrow, so I'll run twice. I want to run in AM before work. That will probably be 5 miles or so at Jacobsburg. The evening run will be the usual LVRR Group Run back in Bethlehem. Hopefully the weather is nice and some more people will show up. I guess we'll see.
5 miles - 48:07 (9:37 pace)
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