I biked last night, but have been so busy lately that I haven't done a whole lot. Today, I was finally free and needed a long run. Since I'm pretty much giving up on trying to run a decent marathon in the fall, I'm starting to work on my trail running and hoping that maybe I can enter an ultra in the fall.
I headed to Jacobsburg State Park. It was super hot and humid out today. It has been like that the last few days. After a cool and rainy June, I was afraid that it would be unbearable once the heat arrived. The good thing is that because I was trail running, I had a lot of shade.
I was hoping to run 20 miles, but figured that might be a lot on such a hot day. Anything over 15 miles would be an accomplishment. That distance has pretty much been my long run goal each week. I want to run that much as a minimum.
With all of the heat and humidity, I knew that I would have to bring water along and some nutrition too. I need to learn how to eat and drink more on long runs too, especially if I plan to enter ultras.
I was planning several loops. I also intended to walk some of the hills. The only thing is that there aren't many hills in Jacobsburg. Most of the ones that do exist aren't very steep either. It is an easy place to run. I'm not sure if that was a good thing or not.
I bought a handheld bottle and some electrolyte tablets to drop into it. That seemed to work out pretty good. I had bought one before and found it kind of annoying. That was when I was marathon training though and more worried about my pace. Running nice and easy today, the handheld wasn't a problem at all. I just switched hands every few miles.
I usually run on the main path out of the parking lot. Today, I started the first loop by just going straight across the street. That made the distance of the first loop slightly less than normal.
I cruised around and felt good. The heat didn't feel bad at all, with all of the shade. It was actually more noticeable any time that I stopped and walked. I came to another guy running early on. He was one of the few runners that I encountered. I rarely see people running there. There were quite a few hikers out. I didn't see any horses or mountain bikers, that I can recall.
The first loop was easy and pretty uneventful. I like these type of trail runs because I don't focus on pace at all. When I saw that my first couple miles were around an 11 minute pace, I just decided to try to stay under that for most of the run. Of course I could go much faster, but I wanted to survive the run and the humidity.
I ran through a lot of the muddy section. We have had so much rain lately, so that was a blast. Some parts were so muddy that it was tough to even find a place to run through. This is a gradual uphill section and I did walk some of it.
Even when there are hills that I walked, they usually were short. The one exception is the powerline hill. It is fairly long and has a decent slope. The other issue is that it is one of the few trails exposed to the sun. I made sure to walk it.
Most of the last few miles of this loop were awesome. The remainder of the Sober's Run Loop is largely downhill. I was going easy and still putting in some nice times. They were just over a 9 mile pace.
There was some walking to get around the construction area. It will be nice when the new building is done and I don't have to detour around it. I do sort of like going uphill there though and it does add some distance. I finished up the first loop at 5.6 miles.
I was pretty beat when I stopped. I tried to get shade and continue to drink and I also ate an energy bar. There was actually a bit of a breeze and after stopping, I felt pretty good a few minutes later. My shorts were unbelievably soaked though. It was like I went swimming and I had not even run 6 miles. There were just an awful pair of shorts. Luckily, I had another pair with me and I changed into those. They worked out much better for the remainder of the run.
The second loop was a shorter loop. However, it had a steep climb and worse yet, a lot of it was run through open field. I knew that would be a bit of a challenge. Actually, it wasn't too bad because I walked a lot of the hill. There also seemed to be some cloud cover when I was in the field area.
The first couple miles of this loop were slow and a little challenging. I knew a lot of the end of it would be downhill though. It seemed to go by pretty quick. I had another electrolyte tablet with my water and that seemed to be helping. I didn't notice much salt on my face. That is usually a problem when I don't drink enough.
I startled a woman coming around a turn. She was hiking. I finished this loop a short time later. It was 3.9 miles long. I was now at 9.5 total miles. Again, the rest helped. I was quite beat though. I knew the final loop would be tough.
This time, I did the same loop as the first time. The only difference was that went out on the main path and thus extended it. I knew that with the extra distance, I'd easily hit 15 miles and would probably run to mile 16. By this point, I knew there was no way that I was doing more mileage than this loop. It was just too hot and humid, even in the shade.
I passed a few people walking their dogs along the creek. Again, not much happened on this loop. It was rather lonely. I kind of like that too. It makes for a good mental challenge. I do find running the miles on the trail can be more relaxing.
By the time I reached 13 miles, I was quite exhausted. It dawned on me that I had never run this far alone on a trail before. That was a nice accomplishment. My legs were starting to get sore by now and my whole body was just tiring. The good thing was that since I had walked quite a bit, I could walk again if I had to.
I still mostly walked the uphills, like the muddy section and powerline section. Sometimes, I was so beat that I even briefly walked flat sections. That didn't last long. I was sore and exhausted, but I had to keep going. The electrolyte tablets in the water were sure a big help, but I was still sweating a lot.
Right before the powerline trail section, it was quite a struggle. I was losing it. It was a big help knowing that when I got past the powerlines and back into the woods, it would mostly be downhill from that point on.
I was still tired, but I got a nice second wind thanks to the downhill. I watched as my overall pace dropped. It had slowed to well over 11 minutes on this loop, thanks to the extra walking. I kept just focusing on the next half mile or mile.
Finally, I was downhill near the main lot and heading back to the finish. At this point, I was very close to 16 total miles. To get there, I ran about .2 miles out on the flat main path. It was great to be done.
My legs were quite sore after this one. It definitely beat me up. It was great to be done. This was one of my more challenging runs ever. The heat and humidity made it so hard, as did running on trails and doing so alone.
It's hard to believe that a 50K is another 15 miles. I would like to do that in the fall, but I guess I'll let time dictate that. I think one of the things that made this run so tough was that so much of the route is runnable. If it were a more hilly course, I would've walked and recovered a lot more. I think that was why I was able to do more at Dave Decker's Loopy Run. I guess having friends there helped too.
I was hoping that maybe I could run another decent length trail run tomorrow. With how sore my legs are, I guess that is likely out of the question. Trails seem better on the legs, but they still can beat them up quite a bit. I'll probably just hop on the bike and try to take it easy.
Loop 1 - 5.6 miles - 57:40 (10:18 pace)
Loop 2 - 3.9 miles - 40:59 (10:31 pace)
Loop 3 - 6.5 miles - 1:12:07 (11:05 pace)
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