I've really been going crazy with working out the last two days. I wanted to finish the week with 40 miles of running and 100 miles of biking. It took a lot of work, but I accomplished exactly that. Today, I ran 15 miles on trails and rode for 19 miles. That is following 15 miles of running yesterday and 15 miles of biking too.
The weather was rainy and I was tired, so I didn't get started until late afternoon. I'm getting sick of running the trails at Jacobsburg, so I opted to head to South Mountain at Lehigh to run those trails. The course from Dave Decker's Loopy Run is still marked. Each loop is about 4.3 miles, so it would take a couple loops to finish the planned 15 miler.
The route starts out nice and easy with some downhill. That's a good way to warm up. With all the rain, the trails were damp, but they don't get very muddy. I walked the first uphill segment and almost every uphill.
Right around the 2 mile mark, I saw 3 deer. One of them was a buck with antlers. It reminded me of how rarely I see those in the woods. That was pretty cool. I didn't get to count the points.
The beginning of the run was nice because the mountain bikers must maintain it well. They had cut the grass along the trail. I was very grateful for that. I came more prepared to deal with brush this time anyway. I wore my compression sleeves. I was glad that I had those later on when there was some growth along the trail.
I was going nice and slow. It was definitely a faster run when I ran with the group there last month. It is amazing how much faster a group will pull you along. After a lot of early climbing, there is a lot of technical downhill. There are rocks everywhere. I did trip on them every now and then, but I knew they'd be a bigger issue whenever I got tired later on.
One of the more interesting things happened when I got on the trail just past the scenic lookout. I saw a sweatshirt and some water on a wall along the trail. As I climbed up the trail, I realized that someone had setup a tent there. I joked with Decker about camping up there somewhere. I'm just surprised that someone actually did it. I didn't see him and I'm glad because I didn't want to scare anyone.
Toward the end of the first loop, I was walking uphill. I heard some music and realized that it was coming from Musikfest. That was cool and it motivated me to start running again. I tried running a little farther down the trail to add some distance. That didn't last too long though. The problem is that I didn't want to climb back uphill at all and it is nearly impossible to run a flat section on this mountain. It is all up and down.
I finished up the loop at just under an hour. I was at 4.5 miles. It was a slow go. I took some water and dried myself with a towel. The air was cool, but it was still so damp. Even with less than 5 miles, I was already soaked.
I started off the second loop. There were three pretty big birds circling overhead. I'm not sure, but I think they were hawks. That was another cool site. I ran on the road a little farther before the trail. The powerline had a nice view of Hellertown.
I then was back on the regular trail. I saw the deer again in the same area, but this time the buck wasn't there. It was just the other two. I had seen two other deer at a different spot too.
Again, I walked up the uphills. I was starting to get exhausted. I felt fresh after the first loop, but that wasn't the case anymore. My shorts were really starting to get soaked too. I just sweat so much.
Most of this loop was uneventful. I might have tripped over some more rocks, but not much else happened. When I got through the downhill section, I took a different route. I went uphill for about half a mile. This section was part of Decker's run last year. I didn't go too far, but I got an addition mile because of that.
I was glad that I didn't see the camper this time. When I finally ended this slow loop, I was beat. I was tired and soaked. I was having some chafing issues. I felt like I couldn't do another loop. It was just too hilly and rocky. I needed 5 more miles though. I decided to change clothes, and then drive to Jacobsburg to finish up. That would give me some extra recovery time.
I went to Jacobsburg and parked in a small lot. I wanted to run the loop through the open field. I knew it was about 4 miles. I figured I could add in another mile too.
It was a slow start as I was very stiff. I ran this in the opposite direction from the usual way. That meant that I had to start by going uphill. I walked most of it. I even had to walk a lot of the early slight uphill sections. My legs were just so dead. I knew the run would get faster.
After all the cool wildlife at South Mountain, this was boring. All I saw were rabbits and groundhogs running across the field. I don't think I've ever actually seen a deer there.
I was grateful to be going downhill after a while. It was still slow though. The miles seemed to take forever. I started adding up my weekly running mileage in my head. I began counting toward 40. That was a big help.
It was cooler than earlier, but I was still sweating. Of course my chafing issues weren't going to go away. I needed rest for that to happen.
I got to my car at mile 4. I ran an out and back on the flat Sober's run loop. It was only half a mile in each direction. That mile seemed so slow, even though it was actually fast. My pace had been at 12:30 for this loop at one point, but it now dropped below 12.
I was grateful to be done. Running 30 miles in two days was difficult and time consuming. It was worth it though and I'm glad I did it. It will be good training if I decide to do a fall ultra marathon.
I ran out of daylight and I still wanted to bike 19 miles. I do have a bike light, but I didn't want to ride on the roads. I decided to do something crazy. I started my ride at 10 PM. I rode around the parking lot at the school next to my house.
The loop is about .3 or .4 miles. That meant that I had to ride it over and over and over again. I didn't count how many times, but I estimate that it was around 60 times. It definitely got boring. At least the weather was cool. A one point, a cop stopped across the street. Once he figured out what I was doing, he continued on.
This ride was awful, but it was a good act of discipline. I'll need that if I run an ultra. Getting done with the ride and run was so rewarding. I'm finally done with my biggest week ever. I did run 40 miles and bike 100 miles. I worked out for over 15 hours. It was a great week.
Tomorrow, I might bike an easy 10 miles. More likely, I'll just take a total day of rest and get back at it on Monday. I haven't done a cutback week in some time, so I plan on doing that this coming week.
10 miles - 2:15:53 (13:35 pace)
5.01 miles - 59:27 (11:53 pace)
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