Saturday, February 27, 2016

Grinding Out 11

Today was simply a day to get it done.  The plan was to run 11 miles, so I could get 65 for the week.  The trick was finding time.  Since Kristin didn't meet me in the morning, I didn't get up to run early.  Instead, I ran in between sessions of wrestling.  I decided to go to SteelStacks to start my run.

It was a fairly decent weather day.  The starting area had a killer wind.  It always does there.  I was comfortable most of the rest of the run, even along the Lehigh River.  I wore my shell with short sleeves.  I also had on shorts.

I was thinking of running a loop, mostly on pavement.  I headed out and decided I'd go over the Hill to Hill Bridge.  Rather than running around town, I elected to go northbound on the D&L Trail.  I was going to run around the old industrial area first, but forgot to do that.

After looping off the bridge, I got to the D&L at Sand Island.  This is some stone and some dirt.  I was on there early spring one year, so I knew it would be a mess.  If it got too messy, I'd turn around.  I got on the trail just before mile 2.

It was definitely sloppy and a mess, especially on the first mile as I headed toward the Allentown Canal Park.  I saw a couple walking early, but most of the route was on my own.  The legs didn't feel too bad on pavement.  I was slow, but not hurting.  The soft trail messed with me early on though.  My lower leg and back hurt.  I trotted on.

I saw a few geese, but was glad they moved out of the way.  I always worry they might attack me.  I try to give them plenty of room.  They were fine.  I worried about the way back.

I tried to run wherever the best footing was.  Often, that was the grass in the middle of the two tracks.  Going out was kind of uneventful.  It was a flowing river on one side and the canal and train tracks on the other. 

Originally, I was thinking 2.5 miles would be good.  Then, my body started to feel better.  I went to mile 3 and on toward mile 3.5.  I kept talking myself into another half mile.

I knew the more I went out, the less I'd have left when I got back.  I thought mile 4 would be good and was finally going to turn around.  Then I came to some bikers going the other way.  They looked slow and I thought I might have to pass them if I turned around at that point.

I just continued on.  I figured 4.5 miles would be good.  I was getting a little chilled.  This would get me 9 miles when I got back.  I couldn't resist though, I went another half mile.

Finally, I approached a dog walker just before mile 5.  That was a good time to turn and head back.  I was happy to be heading back, but realized I still wasn't even halfway through the run yet.

I just continued on and plugged away.  I was trying to fight the boredom.  I tried to only look at my watch every half mile.  That made things better, but it didn't last.  Getting to mile 6 and then especially mile 7 was great.

The trail was getting sloppier as I went.  I thought about my total weekly mileage and that seemed to help too.  I kept repeating something about mile 62 when I was going toward that point.  I hit that a little before Sand Island.

I got by the geese cleanly again.  There was a guy hiking with a pack.  Then, I saw some more people near Sand Island.  Very few people were out at all.

I wanted to kind of loop around.  However, I didn't want to go over 11 miles, so I went back the way I came.  I struggled a lot when I got back on pavement.  Going uphill to the Hill to Hill Bridge was tough.

Normally, I take my watch off with a mile to go.  Today, I decided to do it at two miles to go.  I cruised along very slowly now.  In fact, coming down the Hill to Hill Bridge, I was startled.  A young Lehigh girl ran right past me.  She wasn't even running that fast, but I was a slug at this point.

I ran back toward SteelStacks.  It was great to finally get there and have just a mile left.  However, I was going so slow.  I just kept moving.

I went out and looped around a parking lot near the Sands.  Coming back was into the headwind and very cold.  I was sputtering, but finished the day and the big week at my car.

It wasn't a pretty week, but I'm glad I got the job done.  I pushed through a lot of crappy days.  I hit mile goal mileage.  Now, maybe I'll back off a little bit again.

Tomorrow, I'd love to hit some trails.  It would be the 7th straight day of running.  I want to run the Golden Eagle Trail near the ES100 course.  I don't know if I'll have the energy to drive all the way up there though.

10.99 miles - 1:43:20 (9:24 pace) 55 feet of elevation gain

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