Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Short Monocacy Park Recovery Run

I took Monday completely off after the 50K.  On Tuesday, I got on the bike twice.  That was perfect for recovery.  The legs were sore for both of those two days, but felt great today.  The worst was actually that night after I cramped up in both calves and thus they were very sore.

Since I felt good today, I decided I would use a very short and easy run to test out the legs.  If they felt fine, I'd run later in the week.  If I didn't feel good, I would stop the run.

I needed somewhere flat.  I got this trail booklet from Wegman's over the summer.  It had Monocacy Park in it.  I didn't even know they had any trails there.  I hiked there over the summer and saw that it was short and flat.  I decided this would be perfect for today.

The plan was just an easy two miles.  I figured each loop would probably be about a mile long.  This is actually a fun little trail.  It is an in and out singletrack along the creek.  There were a couple fishermen there and I'm sure it's busy there during that time of year.  Sometimes the trail would be very close to the edge of the water.

My left hamstring was a little tight early on, but felt great after a few minutes.  The odd thing during the race and now after it, is that my left calf isn't bothering me anymore.  It had been a minor problem after the marathon and I thought it would be an issue during the race.  I had so many other problems though that I guess I didn't even notice it.

I quickly came to the end of the trail, although I was surprised to be about .75 miles out.  I didn't think the trail would be that long.  I went under a railroad bridge and then ran over what looked like some BMX trails.  I was then onto the main double wide path.

Some people were running with their dogs and the dogs went crazy.  I actually saw two other guys running and a cute young lady.  I was surprised that this area was so busy.  It was a perfect cool, fall day.  I just didn't realize this was a running area.

I ran out until I got to Schoenersville Road.  I thought about crossing the road, but wasn't sure if there was any more trail there.  I was already at one mile out.  I headed back.

This area is kind of cool.  It is flat, but there are giant cliffs near the trail.  The changing colored leaves made it awesome too.  I passed those couple runners mentioned above.

I then went by the section that is part of the high school cross country course.  If I ever want to do some more miles, I could run on there too.  I then had to cross railroad tracks for a second time.  That got me back into the singletrack.  I needed a short out and back to finish up.

It was a nice two miles and I'm feeling good.  I biked in the dark again this evening too.  I'll run one more day this week, either tomorrow or Friday.  It is a light week.  On Sunday night, there is a big group run at Trexler.  I'll probably only do one loop, but I'd love to try two.  That would depend on how I feel after the first one of course.

2 miles - 20:10 (10:05 pace)

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