Thursday, May 2, 2013

South Mountain Drive Solo Run

Today was the usual LVRR Thursday evening group run.  Some young lady asked about it on facebook and said she was going to come tonight.  I waited and waited and waited and just like last week, no one showed.  It is so frustrating.  There was some kind of dinner at ArtsQuest with a lot of women dressed up, so that was entertaining to watch them all come in.  The area was buzzing with activity.  There was just none for the run.

The weather was perfect.  It was in the 70s with a slight breeze.  The weather excuse no longer holds water.  Actually, some weeks we had more people in the dead of winter.  I don't know why we can't get anyone to show up with a club that is so big.  If this continues over the next few weeks, I'm just going to kill the run.  I'm getting tired of being frustrated.  I didn't think we could draw worse than we did in Parkway, but we are currently smashing that.

I didn't really want to run around that area, since I was running alone.  As usual, I decided to head to the Saucon Rail Trail.  My friend Jessica was talking about a big hill in Polk Valley Park, which is nearby.  I found the park, which was really nice and a street behind it had a nice hill.  I'm not sure if that is it.  This could be run from the Saucon Rail Trail, but I didn't feel like doing that today.  Since I wanted to get around 8 miles in, I decided just to leave the park and head to the Saucon Rail Trail.

I got to Water Street, parked the car, and changed my mind again.  I love running this trail, but at the same time, I do it so often that I'm starting to get sick of it.  I needed to do something new.  I thought why not be crazy and run up South Mountain Drive to Lehigh's Mountaintop Campus.  I haven't done that in some time.

I just ran right from Water Street Park.  I still figured that I had over an hour of daylight.  There are some short hills on Water Street that are difficult.  My left calf and right quad were so sore early on.  I had to sputter along slowly.  I biked this afternoon and rode 20 miles in the last two days, in addition to all my running.  All of that was taking its toll.

Still I battled on.  After some of the short, steep hills, things started feeling a little better.  This first mile was slow, but I knew the toughest parts would be yet to come.  I ran along the road for awhile.  I've probably been on roads way too much this week.  That is where I have done all of my runs.

Around mile 2, I got to the entrance to Lehigh's Goodman Campus.  Some people were out front in the grass, playing with their dogs.  They must've thought that I was crazy to be running towards the mountain.  Lehigh's track is setup and looks fancy.  I didn't realize it, but apparently they are having the Patriot League Championships there this weekend.  Too bad I'll be camping.  I would love to see that.

From the Goodman entrance, it is a gradual uphill until the base of the mountain.  It isn't hard, but it sure isn't easy either.  It was a slow go.  Eventually, I made it to the main portion of the mountain.  I always run the direction of the uphill traffic, so that cars don't come flying down the hill and have to avoid me.

I climbed and climbed and climbed.  In reality, the mountain isn't quite a mile in length.  However, it does go up from around 250 feet to over 800 feet (at least from the Goodman Campus area).  That is some serious elevation change and a good workout.

I just focused on getting to the curve in the road.  I knew that from there, I wasn't too far away from the top.  I didn't feel too bad.  I was breathing a little heavy and my legs were beginning to get sore.  It sure wasn't easy, but it didn't kill me as much as it had in the past. 

I am in good shape, but I still don't do climbs like this.  Most of the hills I run are rolling hills.  This one is very long and seems never ending.  I do love running this route, I'm just not crazy about worrying about the traffic.

The final quarter mile to the top is really what did me in.  That's where I started feeling the burn.  I was finally breathing heavy, sweating a lot and my legs were hurting.  Before I knew it, I was to the top.  I actually ran about a tenth of a mile into Lehigh's Mountaintop Campus.  That gave me 3 miles.

The 3rd mile was certainly slower, but at 9:34, it wasn't too bad.  I climbed almost 300 feet in that mile alone.  One thing that is amazing, is how good you feel once you are at the top and can cruise.  My legs recovered quickly and enjoyed the flat ground.

Normally, I open up my stride and let myself just fly downhill.  However, with my quad sore, I took it easy.  Ever since I've started running Trexler, I've been taking it a little easier downhill.  The legs didn't feel too bad.  I wasn't going downhill fast.  I was thinking that maybe I should train for the South Mountain 10 miler and run it next fall.  I'm not crazy about the idea that they leave the road open though.

I headed down the mountain and the legs didn't feel that great, but they weren't bothering me either.  That is, until the very steep bottom of the mountain.  I wasn't in pain, but my legs just began to feel dead.  They had no pop in them.

After the bottom of the mountain, I came across a biker going up the mountain.  He said, "it looks much more fun that way."  I yelled back, "yeah, I've already run up it."  I ran through the Goodman Campus.  There were a bunch of bike riders there.  They must've met for some type of group ride.  That does seem like a rather nice area to ride in.

I went out along a quiet country road this time.  There were some farms and stuff.  I then came out right by Water Street Park.  With my legs feeling dead, I knew that I wasn't running 8 miles.  I started shooting for 6.5 miles.  That was also how far I ran yesterday.

I came out to the Water Street Park and then went on the Saucon Rail Trail.  My quads and legs felt instantaneously better.  I ran much harder and flew by a woman who was running.  I only planned to go out about half a mile.  Whenever I hit 6.5 miles, I'd turn around and walk back.  I did just that.

It was a productive run, but my body clearly could use some rest.  I'll be on the trails for the rest of the weekend.  Maybe that will help.  I should finish with over 50 miles of running this week and at least 20 miles of riding.  It has been a good week. 

I might have to start backing off the next few weeks.  I wasn't going to taper for my half marathon since it isn't really a goal race, but I might have to.  My body is struggling now.  I haven't had an off day to recover from Monday's 18 miler.

One fun thing I did do, was put together a group run at Jacobsburg for National Trails Day.  It will be on Saturday June 1st.  I just created the event today and already have around 20 people committed to it.  It might be huge.  I probably should contact the park at some point.

Tomorrow, I work early.  Hopefully, that will be my only order.  I'd like to get a 5 or 6 mile Trexler run done.  Then I can head to French Creek State Park near Reading.  I'm going to camp there and explore some of the trails.  It should be a fun running weekend.

6.5 miles - 57:49 (8:54 pace)

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