Thursday, April 18, 2013

Jacobsburg and St. Luke's Course Preview Run #3

I ran twice again today.  I planned to run with Flo this morning, but she cancelled on me.  It was actually kind of funny considering doing the same as I didn't feel great in the early morning.  Since I didn't have any work today, I decided to head out for a run around lunch time.

I'd like to start running double sessions at least twice a week.  I'm thinking I'll often just do 3 or 4 easy miles in the morning, probably at Jacobsburg or somewhere else nearby.  Since I had the LVRR run later in the evening, I elected to just run 3 easy miles at Jacobsburg.

I went straight across from the main parking lot.  The plan was to run 1.5 miles out and 1.5 miles back.  After running hard last night, I didn't feel all that great.  My calves were sore.  Taking it easy didn't help.  At least I wasn't going very far.

It was actually cloudy and cool.  It was ideal weather.  I'm really enjoying spring so much.  It is just so energizing after a harsh winter.

I heard someone firing off rounds, so I elected not to go on the outskirt trail.  Then when I did take one of those trails, I realized that it seemed like it was actually coming from the other side of Route 33.  Still, it was better to be safe than sorry.

I didn't feel strong over the hills today, but they were still relatively easy.  I thought back to when I first ran here last year and I struggled immensely on these same small hills.  I've made such progress now.

I continued to cruise around and just enjoy nature.  As I approached 1.5 miles into the run, I was at a road crossing.  I could've turned around, but decided to continue on over the road.  Right after crossing it, I came to a man running with his dog.  He had on a St. Luke's Half Marathon shirt and I asked him if he was running it again and he said he was.  I told him I was taking pictures for the race.  I was jealous of him running with his dog.  I can't wait to have a dog of my own to run with.

I didn't want to run into the guy, so I went out a little farther than I planned.  I also knew it would be a little shorter back, so that was fine.  I ran out to about 1.6 miles.  I then turned around.

I headed back over the hills again.  Most of the rest of the run was uneventful.  In the final half mile, it began to rain.  It was quite refreshing.  I was glad I wasn't caught in it too long though.  It was great to finish up near the parking lot.

This evening was the 3rd and final part of the St. Luke's course preview.  Again, it was a big failure.  At least I tried to generate more interest in the group run.  It had rained earlier and was cloudy, so I'm sure some of that scared people away.  It was fine during the run.  The weather for these runs hasn't been the best.

The only people that showed up were a couple.  They were cool and it was a good run.  It was interesting because she was from the area, but they now live in Denmark (where he is from).  I think this was our first international runner to join the group run. 

We were just running through the Parkway.  They had never run here before.  We chatted a lot about running.  He is the one running the half marathon.  She hasn't run that far yet.  He's run a half marathon and a marathon in the past year.

We started off together and ran for quite awhile.  The pace was pretty solid.  We got to the covered bridge together.  I told them that there were some hills on the course and these were pretty typical.  The woman did fall behind us after a bit.

After we got to the end of the Parkway and crossed over to the other side, we made sure to wait for her.  That way she knew where we were going.  She fell back again, but now she how to get back.

The last mile didn't seem that quick, but it was.  That one was run in 7:43.  We finished up just over 4 miles.  It was a good run with some good weather.  I always enjoy the company.  I gave them some ideas of other places to run near where they are staying.

I'm putting in a lot of miles this week, so tomorrow is finally a rest day.  That said, by resting I'll probably bike something like 20 miles.  I'm determined to improve my conditioning even more and lose some weight.  On Saturday, I'll have to make that weekly trip out to Trexler.  I hope I can get through the whole loop on my own.

AM run: 3 miles - 29:27 (9:49 pace)
PM run: 4.15 miles - 34:06 (8:13 pace)

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