First, I got out to the track in the late morning. I was just going to take it easy and run 4X400 meters with 400 meter active recovery segments. It was nice a cool when I started in the late morning. The humidity was low. I elected not to wear a shirt.
There was a guy walking as I warmed up for a mile. Fall high school sports are now going on, so it's quite busy there. I realized that last week I didn't start with the stagger in lane 3. Today, I ran the repeats correctly.
I tried to be solid and steady on the first one. However, that was a disappointing 1:25. The recovery was nice. The second repeat I picked it up to 1:20. Again, I enjoyed the recovery.
For the final 2, I made sure to run on my toes more. I ran hard for the third one, but wasn't going to kill myself. There was yelling at the football practice above the track. I pretended that they were yelling for me. This repeat was a 1:21.
I wish I could've been a little faster, but the legs just weren't that sharp. I was breathing heavy anyway and moving well. The most important thing was to get out of my comfort zone and I was doing that during this workout. On the final one, I really pushed it. I ran that one at 1:19. I then cooled down with another mile.
I'm borrowing my old roommate Bill's camera to take photos for the Eastern States 100 this weekend. I drove out by him, near NYC to get it. Then, I went to the South Mountain Reservation on the way back. I've never run there before.
It was very cool again, but I knew I'd be out there for awhile. I went shirtless and was hot by the end. I also didn't have much water, so that didn't help.
I parked at a dog park. The main road to the top of the park was packed. There were a ton of people running, biking and walking dogs. It definitely wasn't as remote as a lot of the trail runs I go on.
I started off on this stone trail that quickly turned to dirt. It was nice and flat. It was weird though, because it was right next to the paved walkway, so I could see people over there. I passed two runners going the other direction. The first one, a guy, looked like a real trail runner that would hit some good singletrack. I was hopeful that I was going the right way. The second was a cute young lady with a small dog. I doubted she ran anything tough.
My plan was to run on the yellow trail. As I got pretty far out, I turned toward where I thought that would be. I ended up going downhill a bit. I didn't want to go too far down though. Luckily, I saw a sweet singletrack that cut across. Even better, it was the yellow trail.This beginning part really sucked. It was cool that it ran along a ridge. However, it was super rocky. It was rock after rock after rock. The only place worse around here is the AT. It was very frustrating.
There were some fun little sections with dried streams. There were some roots too. There was a nice and high canopy as well. Everything was wide open. At times, it was hard to even follow the trail. Basically, it seemed like it followed the worst rocks you could find.
I almost fell going slow. The one thing I did like was that there wasn't much elevation early on. That would change though. A couple miles in, I came to a pretty long and tough climb. I was breathing heavy and unsure if I'd make it to the top.
At least I'm getting fairly good at reading terrain by now. I could tell that it looked like I was nearly the top and I was. After that, I recovered. That made for kind of a slow 11:03 third mile, but I did run the whole thing. I need to add more climbing to the mix.
At the top, it was less rocky, but it was narrow singletrack with bushes on the side. I wasn't crazy about that because I always worry about ticks in those situations. I was glad to get through this part.
I came back to more of the wide woods with tall trees. Of course that meant more rocks. I took a picture of this cool stone structure. As I was walking after that, I tripped on a rock. At least I didn't fall.
There was a lot of downhill at this point. I wasn't too crazy about that. I then came to this cool stone bridge. I took a photo of that too. Then, there was another bridge. Somewhere in this area was supposed to be the orange trail. I was hoping to do that loop, but never found it.
I then came to this cool little waterfall with a bench. I tried to take a photo. There were a ton of bugs in the area. I tried to get back on the yellow trail, but it seemed overgrown.
There were so many trails. I just ended up taking one that looked like it was the correct direction. A lot of the trails are wide stone roads that were unmarked. The one I took climbed and climbed and climbed. I went slow and it was very tough because a lot of loose rocks. Because of that and stopping at the waterfall, mile 4 was a 12:54.
I was so lost at this point, but at least thought I sort of knew the way to go. My concern is that I was really only looking to run 6 miles and if I got too lost, I'd have to add a lot more. I knew eventually I'd find something I knew. This place isn't that big.
I came to a dead end road at one point. I climbed and went by a guy hiking the other way a little later. I saw him earlier. Then, I passed a family. I figured they must be going the right way. Finally, I thought I knew about where I was, so I gambled and headed left.
I'll admit, I did get quite lucky. I came up a hill and saw a fence. I knew they had a fence near the dog park. That was where I was at. I was at mile 5 and quite thrilled.
I wanted to get another mile in, so I cut through the middle on a flat, easy trail. I then came out to the main road. I had to run a bit to get to mile 6.
As I was nearing mile 6, I saw what I thought might be a cute woman up ahead. I figured why not run past her. I was pounding the pavement now. I passed her and decided to keep going.There were supposed to be views along this route. There were some cutouts, but you couldn't see over the trees. I guess they are seasonal views. I could see a little bit here and there, but not much.
I went all the way to the end of the pavement. It ends at a giant loop. I was around mile 7 now. I headed back.
Rather than run on the pavement, I went back on the dirt singletrack again. It was the section that I ran in the beginning. It wasn't too long and I was back to the dog park. I ran a little in that area to finish up. Thanks to the pavement and easy sections, I finished with 8 miles, under 10 minute pace.
Today was a decent day. The track workout was solid, if nothing else. I hoped that I would enjoy the trail run more than I did. It was just too rocky for my liking. I'd run there again, but I doubt I'd drive out that far just to run. The one great thing is that I was pretty much exhausted by the end of the second run. I don't get myself to that point too often these days.
Track Workout 4 miles - 27:30 (6:53 pace)
Trail Run 8 miles - 1:19:19 (9:55 pace)
No comments:
Post a Comment