Nice and Easy J-Burg 6

I was struggling to get moving today.  I felt quite sluggish.  I had to get out and run.  I really wanted to run 10 miles on trails, but I knew as the day wore on that I wasn't going to do that.  I headed to Jacobsburg around dinner time.  I was now hoping for 6 miles.

It was pretty cool by August standards.  I even started with a shirt and that lasted about 2.5 miles.  I wasn't soaked, but still sweating by the end.  The weather is slowly getting better though.

I couldn't decide where to start.  At first, it was going to be the standard loop.  I thought about running it in reverse though.  Instead, I headed to the Sober's Run area, to just stay there.

I ran this loop in reverse of usual.  That meant some nice singletrack pretty early on.  The legs felt quite crappy to start, particularly my upper quads.  The singletrack did help.

I love the singletrack section, it is so much fun.  I wish the entire trail was made up of that.  After the first singletrack was over, I headed to the second fun section, along the other creek.  I was enjoying these parts.

I still wasn't feeling great though.  I dreaded the next section.  It was a long and gradual uphill.  I passed a guy going very slow uphill on a mountain bike.  I ending up surprising him.  I rarely go this way because the ascend is so much more gradual than the powerline cut.  It's not hard, but just long.

Eventually, I was up the hill.  Then, it was down the powerline cut.  I was nearly at mile 3.  I took off my shirt at this point and when I got back to my car, I left it there.  I was just under 3 miles at that point.

I decided to take the loop on each side of Sober's Run.  That would give me a lot of fun, easy singletrack.  First, it was on to the flat path.  Then, I was along the creek.  Toward the end of this first half of the loop, two mountain bikers came flying the other way and I had to move for them.

Again, I enjoyed the ridge singletrack.  My legs did too.  Before long, I was back to my starting point.  It was basically mile 5.  I was surprised that it wasn't shorter than that.

I decided that I would run the same loop again, but cut across the creek to shorten it.  That was nice and ice cold, but maybe not the best idea.  I need to wear those shoes for the long run tomorrow and now they are soaked. 

I finished up with a brief out and back along the main path.  It wasn't my best or worst run, but I got it done.  Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow.  I still can't decide where I'm running then, but I'm looking for 25 trail miles.

6 miles - 55:37 (9:16 pace)