I've slacked off a little lately and today was my first run of the week. Of course that meant that it had to be long. I didn't feel like the usual trails, so I decided that I would head to the D&L and start at Cove Road. I figured since I ran so well on the other section of the D&L for the marathon, that I might be able to do well here. I was wrong.
I used to run here all the time, but with my quads getting so beat up, I stopped running anywhere that wasn't a nature trail. It was a perfect, cool fall day. Actually, I was a little hot in the sun, so I went shirtless. That was a questionable call. I was a bit chilly in the shade and this trail has a lot of that.
I started off heading north toward Slatington. My legs felt awesome in the beginning. I felt like I could go so fast and I often had to hold myself back. For once, I was relaxed in the beginning of this run and it didn't feel like a grind.
I just took in the scenery, although after some time, it gets kind of repetitive. It is trees, trees and more trees with a river on the other side and some cliff walls too. There are a couple houses here and there, but not much. I did come across quite a few bikers, some walkers and the occasional runner.
My plan was to run 20 miles. I wanted to make sure I got out over 5 miles, so that I would be over halfway done with my run when I arrived back at my car. I had my handheld bottle with me, so I could go a lot farther. I never ran with that here in the past.
I felt awesome for about 4 miles. Then, the repetitiveness and pounding of the hard surface took its toll. My left calf started to get sore. This area actually wasn't a problem at all until the marathon. The good thing was that my quads were holding up. I was hoping that all of the riding and running on soft surfaces would help.
I figured that I would try to get to Slatington and turn around. I thought that would be about 5 miles. There was a hot dog stand in the parking lot when I got there. That is something new. I decided to keep going a bit farther. I figured that I could at least get to mile 6.
I knew going past Slatington would be a gamble. The section between there and the Lehigh Gap bothers my legs even more than the other section. I kept going though. I was enjoying the scenery and not feeling too bad.
I went to mile 6 and then 6.5 and just kept going. I ran past the small airport just near the Gap. That is cool and the view is neat. I decided to just keep going to 7.5 miles. That would get me to 15 miles and I could quit at my car if I had to.
The 2 miles or more heading back to Slatington were a real grind. My legs were getting sorer and sorer and I felt like they were tied to the ground. I knew it would get better at Slatington, but at that point, I still would have 5 miles to go to my car.
Finally, I made it to the Slatington Trailhead. My water was almost gone and I planned on refilling it there. There are some nice bathrooms there and I thought a water fountain too. I guess I was wrong about that though and I had no money with me to buy a drink at the hot dog stand. I just had to be cautious with my water. At least I would be on the cooler section of the trail until I got to my car.
The legs did feel a little better when I got onto the different surface, but they were still sore. I just had to try to ignore them. I had to keep pushing along. Still, I couldn't believe how awful I felt at miles 11 and 12. I felt amazing in the marathon until about mile 17 and I was running almost the same pace as that day. Maybe I didn't recover enough from the marathon, but I doubt that is the case. I've hardly run at all since the race.
I just focused on each mile. Getting to 13.1 was big. Passing one of the houses, a big dog came to the fence. I was a little worried because he was so huge that I thought maybe he could jump the entire fence. I guess he was just being playful.
The last 2 miles felt awful. I was getting worse and worse. There was some slight downhill, but even that wasn't helping. At mile 14, I was falling off like crazy. I knew by now that even stopping at my car and resting for a bit wouldn't help. I would just have to get to mile 15 and call it a day. That's exactly what I did.
I am so disappointed with how this run went. After feeling great during the marathon, I thought maybe I was finally past the leg soreness issue. I guess not. I suppose it just depends a lot on the surface that I run on. I know that I need new shoes and that might help, but they are the same ones that I used in the marathon and had no problems. I guess the pavement and then dirt trail helped a lot during that race. I felt just about as bad today after 15 miles as I did after the marathon's 26.2 miles last week.
I could've pushed another 2 or 3 miles and maybe 5 miles if I was willing to kill myself. I am so close to my 50K and won't get a lot of benefit from this run, so I decided that it just wasn't worth it. I'll save my legs for the trails.
The one good thing to come from this is that I won't waste any money running the D&L Marathon. Since last week's marathon went so well, I was actually considering it. That won't happen now though, since my legs can't handle this trail. I'll stick to the ultrarunning.
I biked 15 more easy miles on the Nor-Bath Trail after dinner. That helped loosen the legs up some. I'm hoping I can run tomorrow, but I don't have much time. I don't know if I'm working, but I'm going to the Eagles game in the evening. I'd like to run in the morning, but getting up is always difficult. Maybe I can run down there while we are tailgating. I'll have to look into it.
15 miles - 2:08:16 (8:33 pace)
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