This has been a challenging week. Since I'm racing tomorrow, I'm sort of backing off now (for a day anyway). I just wanted 7 easy miles. I decided that I needed to get to Jacobsburg and run on a softer surface. I meant to get on trail more this week, but it simply didn't happen.
It was a very raw day. The temperature was in the low 40s, with a lot of wind, light rain and clouds. It reminded me of the first day of fishing season from my youth. I wore a jacket with my shorts. I was glad I had it on, but as I figured, I was sweating by the end. I started with gloves on until I warmed up.
I wanted to do my usual loop and then add a bit to it, since it is 6 miles long. I started out on the main path, feeling pretty good. I am quite surprised that the legs aren't in worse shape. I had to run by a couple and their dog. Not many people were out today though.
I'm running on a lot of flat surfaces these days and some of the moderate climbs here were slightly challenging. That's one thing that gave my legs some issues, since they aren't totally fresh. It didn't take long to get through the first mile.
I wish I could've really enjoyed one of the first trail runs of the season, but it was just a terrible day. At least I focused on the run and not my watch so much. I saw a turkey in this early going. It took off quickly as I approached. I don't ever remember seeing one here.
It was nice to get some downhill. That section was very wet and sloppy though. I had fun going through it. The regular muddy section was super muddy on this day. We've had a decent amount of rain, plus the snow melt.
I struggled again with some of the short climbs. I was glad to be past the mud and able to run smoothly. I came to mile 3, feeling pretty good.
The climb up the powerline hill was tough. I guess that long, uneven hill will just never get easy. My pace was under 9 minutes for every mile. I knew I'd be flying downhill soon, so that helped as I went uphill.
Before long, I was coasting downhill. I ran a 7:20 and 7:26 on back to back miles on this downhill and flat stretch. It was great to get to mile 5 and 6. I hit mile 6 right past where I started. Normally, I like to climb behind the new building, but I didn't want to put my legs through any more today. Instead, I cut in front of it.
Since I still needed another mile to get to 7, I did a short out and back. This had some small climbs and I came across another guy and his dog. I went out to 6.58 miles and turned around. I finished up shortly before the end of the path. This was a sub 8 minute mile too. That's not bad, considering it wasn't too much effort and it was on a trail.
The legs feel about as good as I'd expect after 74 miles this week and 57 miles in the last 4 days. I'm going to run a 10k tomorrow morning at the Ironton Rail Trail. I can't imagine that I'll run faster than I did at the Super Bowl 10k, especially after the big week. Who knows though. I'd like to think I can still at least run sub 40 minutes. This shouldn't be as competitive as the Super Bowl 10k was.
7 miles - 56:37 (8:05 pace)
No comments:
Post a Comment