It was pouring this morning, so I knew I wouldn't get any exercise in then. I had to wait until everything cleared up. I ate a burger for lunch, so I gave it a couple hours to settle before I began my run.
It wasn't raining any more when I started the run, but it was still cold out. The temperatures were in the 40s. It was also cloudy and breezing. It was a raw spring day.
The plan was to do 800 repeats. After a semi difficult run last night and with back to back tough runs coming up, I figured that I wouldn't get in 7 repeats. That would be a lot. I decided I would just run harder and faster than usual until I was beat.
It was after 4 PM when I started. I ran from Mill Race Park. That is only about 10 minutes from my house. I started off with a mile warmup. I headed north until I hit the road crossing at Tatamy.
My sore calves bothered me during this warmup, but otherwise I actually felt great. I felt faster than I have in awhile. The rest of my legs were awesome. I wasn't sure what to expect with some soreness though.
I crossed over the road by the park after I had turned around. I then started my first fast segment along the Bushkill Creek. This part is downhill, so I was going fast. For some time, my watch showed that too. However, it must've been losing some of the satellite connection because my pace was over 7 minutes for the segment and I was definitely going faster than that.
I got discouraged by my watch. I should've just kept pushing and running on feel. Instead, I slowed a bit. I was still going fairly hard though. During this time, I saw my friend Bob from the BCR running the other way. It was proof that he runs on days other than Saturdays. He doesn't just sit around and take pictures of his feet with random items placed around them.
I did pick it up towards the end of the repeat and my pace seemed better than I thought it would be. I was hoping to go under a 6:30 pace though and I didn't quite do that. It was 6:38. Still that was decent. It might have actually been under 6:30 if everything was accurate or if I kept pushing throughout the segment.
I thought it was pretty windy going out, but it ended up worse going the other way. I pushed hard again through this second segment. My legs were doing fairly well, but stomach didn't feel great. That burger definitely wasn't good fuel for a hard run. I thought 4 hours after eating it, that it wouldn't be an issue, but it was.
I kept going and this segment ended up being very fast. It was a 6:26 pace. I managed to cross one road without having to stop and luckily this part of the run ended just before the road crossing at Penn Pump Park.
I recovered for a quarter mile and took off again. I was heading back now and figured that I would just try getting 4 quality repeats in. This 3rd repeat started off fairly well. I was pushing hard again. Now, I had to battle some wind. The pace was under 6:30 for the first half of it, but I fell off after that. My pace was slipping too much. I saw Bob again right after I finished this repeat.
Since the 3rd repeat fell off so much, I just decided to call it a day. I would've liked to have done more, but I was happy to run a little faster than I have been. I'd like to get faster first and then build my endurance after building speed. I still have quite a few weeks until the half marathon and months until the marathon.
Tomorrow, I will be getting out to Trexler. It will be my first time there this week. There is a group run there at 7:30 in the morning. I'm hoping to make it then and have others to run with. That will definitely make completing the loop much easier. No matter what, I will finish the loop tomorrow (even if I have to walk a lot of it). If I can't make the group run, then I'll run on my own later. I'm not sure what the temperature will be. It will be warm in the afternoon, but I'm not sure about the morning.
4 miles - 30:39 (7:40 pace)
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