It is a good thing I listen to my body. Some days, I feel great and can put 20+ mile runs in without any issues (like the 25 miles at Jacobsburg a few weeks back). Others, like today it is a battle. I had hoped to run 20 miles, but it didn't quite work out that way.
As usual, I slacked off in the afternoon and waited to run. Now that it is dark an hour earlier, that meant a lot of nighttime running. I was planning to run 20 miles on the Nor-Bath Trail. I like the section by Savage Road, so I started there.
Originally, I thought about doing 3 out and back segments of 6 miles each and then just adding to that. I started off following a woman who began right before me. I was worried that I might run a little too fast behind her, but luckily I passed her pretty quickly. She didn't go out very far before turning around.
I just ran along. There isn't much going on on this flat trail. Crossing the roads around rush hour was a pain in the butt. Eventually, I crossed Weaversville Road and then Airport Road.
To do 3 out and back segments, I would've had to turn around at Airport Road. I decided instead that I would keep going. I figured I'd run to the end of the trail and turn around.
It was quite cold today and I had struggled with it in the beginning. I only had on shorts and a lightweight long sleeve tech shirt. I was carrying a handheld water bottle and that actually became very cold.
I ended up going out to almost 4.5 miles before the trail ended. I started to head back and was already developing some soreness. I got new trail shoes and my back was sore after running in them on Saturday. That same mild soreness began to develop today too. I probably should run in road shoes, but I need a new pair of those too.
I cruised along. The pace was nice. It was just over 8 minutes early on. As I headed back, I was amazed at how busy the trail was. I rarely see very many people running there, but I guess a lot of people were squeezing in runs after work and before it got dark.
I arrived back at my car around mile 8.5. I was already quite sore. I definitely need to adjust to these shoes. Not only was my back sore, but my legs were too. I'm also not that used to running long miles continuously like I was doing today.
I headed back out. This time, I was more prepared. I put on my headlamp since it was getting quite dark. I also grabbed my gloves so that my hands didn't get cold.
I was going much slower this time out. I tried to just focus on short segments. Getting to mile 10 was huge. By now, I knew that 20 miles was very unlikely. I have a lot of 15 mile runs, but not many over 20, so that was kind of disappointing.
At one point, I had considered running all the way to the end of the trail again. However, with how sore I was getting, I didn't want to risk going too far out. I figured that if I still felt good when I got back to my car, I could add more miles.
I turned around at Airport Road. That was over 11 miles into the run. I ran along. It seemed like I was going slower and slower. I was now all alone in the darkness and getting kind of tired of the run.
When I got to the one spot with a turn off into a park, I took it. That added some short distance on pavement. I figured that I'd now get to the car around mile 15.
I thought I would call it a day at 15, but then as I approached the car, I thought why not run another mile. I did a short out and back to finish up. This mile was tough and a slow go. I could've pushed through and run a couple more miles, but I didn't want to beat myself up too much this early in the week. There is plenty of time left to get longer runs in.
After those 16 miles, I went home and ate dinner. About half an hour after that, I rode my bike. It was very cold riding through the darkness. The temperature had dropped into the 30s. I felt cold in the first 3 miles, but good after that. I put in a solid 20 mile ride. After a zero day on Sunday, it was good to put in a productive day. It was actually just under 4 combined hours of working out. Amazingly, that is becoming kind of typical for me now.
I'm not sure what I'll do tomorrow. I'd like to run long and run much faster for part of it. I want to see how long I can sustain a 6:51 pace or at least a 7:00. If I can do that pretty long, I may enter a half marathon soon. I have to see how my body recovers tomorrow and then decide if this is something I want to try. If not, I'll do it on Wednesday.
16 miles - 2:21:51 (8:52 pace)
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