As far as summer weather goes, 2015 hasn't been all that bad. Still, I hate summer and had been looking forward to the calendar changing to September. Evidently, that had no impact, as these last few days have been some of the worst of the summer. Today might have been the worst weather I've run in yet.
Running back to back days of 30 miles and 15 miles was tough. Adding 15 more miles today would be quite the task. It is what I needed to do to train for the West Virginia Trilogy next month.
I wanted something flat, easy and fast today. I headed up to Bushkill in the Delaware Water Gap to run the McDade Trail. There was a fee there and some of the other areas of the trail looked too exposed to the sun. That would've destroyed me, so I couldn't risk it. As much as I don't like Jacobsburg, I headed down there again.
By the time I got started, it was 4 PM. I thought maybe it would be less hot, but it wasn't. I was dieing early on. It was so humid. Even going shirtless provided no relief.
Mentally, it was so tough to get out of the car. Today was the kind of day I just normally bail on. I thought about it, but then talked myself into running. I knew I needed a tough, miserable day like this for the mental aspect of training.
Running 15 more miles in this heat seemed overwhelming. The legs were slow and sluggish early on. Still, I was able to run quite a bit. I sputtered along. I started off with the main loop. Some of the exposed sun sections were hot. I walked the early uphills.
I did enjoy the singletrack part. The Sober's Run loop has so much stone. It kicked my butt the other day. Instead of going on it, I turned left after the road crossings. I went along the singletrack. I was clicking off the miles. I was near 4 of them at that point. Even with this easy part, I couldn't get myself to run the whole time.
I got back to the road a short time later. If I would've finished the loop, I probably would've had about 5 miles. I wanted more, so I headed up behind the new building and along the ridge. This section is fun. However, adding another 1.5 miles in the heat probably wasn't a good idea.
I got back to the car exhausted and at only 6.5 miles. I wondered how I could keep going. I toweled off, but was sweating so much and overheating. I ate a couple pretzels, refilled my Tailwind and drank some more water.
I went back out. I knew I had to simply focus on finishing this loop. I couldn't think about the whole run. It would be too overwhelming. I felt like such shit, but kept moving. It was great to get to halfway.
As I closed in on 9 miles, some mountain bikers passed me. They also stopped and went by me again. That caused me to run a little more and cover more ground. This mile or so went by quicker. I was thrilled to hit mile 9.
Getting to mile 10 was even better. This was on the easy singletrack, it was walking and running mixed. I kept going. That was the key.
I got back at the car at mile 11. Wisely, I didn't try to add on this time around. I refueled and toweled off again. Being less than 4 miles from finishing was a big boost.
I was really undecided on where to go. I decided to cross the road right by the parking lot this time. I didn't need as many miles now. I ended up walking so much of this early part of this loop. It was mostly uphill and mostly stone. Around mile 10, my legs really fell off and by now I was merely hanging on.
At least it was getting cooler. The bugs were bothering me though, at the slower (often hiking) pace. I knew coming back things would get better.
It was great to get into the singletrack section in this area. I ran again and had fun briefly. I nearly got hit by a mountain biker. I saw the group earlier and they were flying. I moved out of the way.
I ran along the downhill then. After that, I turned to head back. I knew this would be awful, as the part I was doing was stone and mostly uphill. I walked a lot again.
Finally, I got to where it started going downhill, near 13.5 miles. I was able to run the descents, so I just did that. It was fun. I cruised on back. I looped around a smaller lot to add distance.
There was a small hill with about a mile to go. I dug deep and ran it. I ran all the way back to the water fountain. I was too beat though and still had a half a mile left. I ended up walking a little.
I then walked past the new building. I turned around and ran back downhill. I finished up in the parking lot, feeling very dead. I was relieved to be done.
I was so tired and beat. All I wanted to do was sit down. It felt great. My foot is quite sore and so are my legs. I'm so proud of pushing through though and training well. This was without a doubt the hardest training segment of my life.
Now it is rest, rest and more rest. I won't be running until the weekend at the earliest. It may even been later now. I think this is my key training stretch, but I'm not 100% sure. The weekend I was supposed to pace Virgil is still open.
15 miles - 3:07:24 (12:30 pace) 903 feet of elevation gain
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