The plan for today was an easy 5 miles. I wanted to run in the morning, but it was tough to get up. I have joined this group on facebook of people that are trying to run 100 miles between Thanksgiving and Christmas. While I'm obviously planning a lot more than that, the group still helps me get out there and it holds me accountable.
Before I went to the Eagles game this morning, I saw some of the group's posts. I suggested that we run a mile or two for each touchdown our favorite NFL team scores today. The Eagles won 24-21 (with 3 touchdowns), so I had to be good to my word.
I was sleeping on the car ride home and very tired. Maybe eating a chicken cheesesteak for dinner did that. I don't know, but I needed a coffee before the run. I finally got out there for my 6 mile run around 8:30 at night.
Since it was a pretty short run, I just headed to the neighborhoods near my house. I didn't want to waste time traveling. I saw the temperature at the bank was 39 degrees and with no wind, I figured it was shorts weather. I had on that and a ColdGear top. That was great. It was slightly chilly, but overall not bad.
I started off with the mile loop in my neighborhood. That is a good way to get going. There usually isn't too much traffic. As usual, my eyes watered until I adjusted to the cold.
Rather than run the loop around the other neighborhood across the street from the school, I decided to run the one next to the school. I figured I could get a couple solid miles in there. I ran up the street and did an out and back on one of the dead end streets. I'm not sure why, but it seems to be easier to run in this neighborhood than the other one. It seems to go quicker.
I then ran to the road that cuts through to the industrial park. I did a bit of an out and back there too. I was now over 3 miles into the run. I like running this area in the dark because it is lightly traveled. I don't have to worry about cars.
This run went by so smoothly. It was an easy pace and I was pretty deep in thought. When I can get myself in a zone like that, the miles just click off.
Before I knew it, I was back at the elementary school and nearly at 4 miles. Just 2 more miles to go. I decided that I would do about 3 loops around the school parking lot to get to mile 5.
Most of my miles were quite consistent. They were around an 8 minute pace. I felt pretty good, although I am running more on roads these days and have some minor soreness developing. I badly need new shoes and think that I'll purchase some this week.
After looping around the school, I ran my neighborhood loop once more. That went by pretty quickly. It was such a pleasant night to run. I needed a little more distance, but I finished up with a solid 6 miles. It was a good way to start the week.
Tomorrow, I need a long run. I want to hit 20 miles. I haven't done a run that long in quite some time. I'd like to run at Jacobsburg, but I'm not sure there will be enough daylight after work to be able to do that. I might need to go to the Nor-Bath Trail. I may actually go there first and see if the trail is still sloppy. I don't want to try to run on a messy trail for 20 miles.
6 miles - 49:17 (8:13 pace)
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