Climb, climb and climb again seems like about all I do these days. I wasn't traveling today and since it could storm, I skipped going to the Bear Creek run. I headed up to Wind Gap to run the Katellen Trail.
I was tired, so it took awhile to get out the door. It was supposed to be humid and I was sweating, but it seemed no worse than most days. I ran shirtless, as usual.
The plan was to run a few repeats there. Clearly with a lot of elevation gain, I wasn't going to run big miles. It's less than a mile to the top of the mountain and the Appalachian Trail.
I began with an easy half mile warmup on the road. The legs were okay, but not great. It was time to hit the trail.
I ran up the trail. It begins pretty gradually, so that wasn't bad. I forgot about the fact that it rained overnight. I had to adjust to the slippery rocks on this trail.
I knew the big area of concern would be the rock/wooden stair like section. That's very steep and I had to walk it last time. I was determined not to this time. Knowing the route now, was a big plus. I knew that that was the steepest part.
I was breathing super heavy through this section and going slowly. Climbing up was a challenge and I nearly slipped on a wet rock. The legs began to burn and I was getting close to my breaking point. Finally, I was through this part though and very proud to be still running.
While the gradient got better after that, it was still uphill and kind of steep. There was no chance to recover, so the breathing continued to labor. At least the legs no longer burned. I kept going and going. I saw the shelter at one point and knew I was near the top.
It was a huge relief to make it all the way up. I ran the whole time too. That is progress. Now, I was on top of the mountain and on flat running. That didn't exactly make things easy though.
I decided that I would continue on the AT for a bit. This section is very rocky and really sucks. I headed south. I had to almost tiptoe over the pointy, wet rocks. I didn't get very far and for the second day in a row, I saw a snake on the trail. I think this was probably a rat snake too (like yesterday). I didn't stick around to find out. I figured that that was my cue to turn around.
I decided that I'd run partway down the woods road on the other side of the mountain now. Somehow, I missed both this turn and the turn for the part of the AT that I came through. Apparently, I was still on the rocky AT. I looked everywhere for snakes now.
This part was also slow and rocky. I wasn't on it very long and it came out to the end of the powerline. That was awesome. It has an amazing view of the mountains to the north. I will surely take this route again in the future. Perhaps I can bring some others up here too. I wish that I had a camera today.
I turned around after the view and looked for the woods road again. This time, I found it and headed down. This would've been nice except there were a ton of spiderwebs. I got tired of eating them pretty quickly.
I got to the gate on the road and was going to go around that, but there were more webs. I decided to head back and climb slightly. I had thought that I went down more than I did. I was disappointed with the lack of elevation gain, when I looked at the data later.
I felt kind of recovered now, from all the running on top of the mountain. Therefore, I elected to head back down the Katellen Trail and try to run back up again. This would be a great challenge.
I thought getting down would be slippery, but most of the rocks were so loose. It wasn't a problem, as long as I avoided the flat rocks. I cruised on down the hill and felt solid. It is fun descending.
When I got to the bottom, there was a guy in the parking lot with a camera. I toweled off very briefly at my car and then refilled my water bottle. It was time to ascend again.
On the way down, I told myself to keep going to the top no matter what. If I had to walk, so be it. There's no point in turning around once you start walking. Battle through it and get to the top.
The bottom wasn't too bad, but climbing once already surely had an impact. I wasn't picking my feet up as well and I was stumbling on some of the rocks. My breathing was slightly labored on flatter sections too.
I made it to the steep steps area. I knew that this would be the biggest challenge by far. I made it up a few of the steps and pushed and pushed, but it was just too much. I had to walk. I walked the remainder of them.
After the top of that section, I began to run again. I was struggling though and the trail went up and up and up. Even after walking, I wasn't sure I'd be able to continue running to the top.
At one point, the trail leveled off briefly. I was about to turn around. Then, I realized I was at the AT shelter. All I had to do was run up a few more feet. I could see the top of the climb, so I ran up there and on to the powerline cut through.
I turned back around and enjoyed that I was descending now. I was kind of careful going down, but a little faster this time. It was fun heading down the trail. It did seem like it took awhile to get to the bottom. I came across the guy with the camera, near the bottom.
I got back to my car and was nearly at mile 5. I ran out on the road briefly. Then, I was done for the day. I thought I had climbed a lot, but it was only 1200 feet. I thought that it would be closer to 2,000 feet. It was still a good day though and plenty of climbing for such a short run.
Tomorrow, I need to get back on the roads. I'm hoping for 6 or 7 miles at tempo pace with some easy miles before and afterward. I have to stop worrying so much about my mileage. It's not as high as it has been, but I'm getting much more elevation gain with most of my runs. I need to embrace that and know that that is making me stronger. If I recover well enough from that and have time, I might go to Bear Creek for an LVRR group run.
5 miles - 1:02:25 (12:29 pace)
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