Appalachian Trail (Connecticut)

I spent the weekend camping at an auto race in Salisbury, Connecticut.  That meant some running and biking, but not as much as I would've liked.  I did bike around the track in the dark one night.  I was also fortunate because the track is less than 2 miles from the Appalachian Trail.  How lucky is that?

The races ended before dinner on Saturday evening, so I headed out to the Appalachian Trail to explore before it got dark.  I had no idea what to expect, so I had no idea how far I'd run.  I had explored where the trail was via bike, but I wasn't on the trail at all.

I cut through the track's infield and headed out a back gate.  That made getting to the AT much easier.  I ran along the busy road for a bit.  That was a little tricky because the shoulder of the road wasn't wide and there was a lot of traffic leaving the race.  I ran behind a Lamborghini when I crossed a road.  We saw it at the track earlier in the day.

I was then to the AT parking lot and found the trail after initially going down the wrong trail.  This started off as a fun section.  It was flat and through a narrow tree line.  On one side was a creek and on the other side was a farm field.  There were some boards to run over when crossing some feeder springs/streams.  It was a decent little warmup.

This section was rather short and then it actually came to a road.  This was near where I had run earlier.  Basically, I had run through the middle of a triangle. 

Now, the fun began.  I was definitely looking to do some climbing.  I wasn't sure how much I could handle.  I knew the mountains behind the track (where I was headed) were pretty good size.  I grabbed a trail guide at the road crossing and actually didn't even bother looking at it.  That was good because it was pretty much useless.  The AT isn't hard to follow.  It is just a bunch of single white blazes with two blazes at turns.

The climbing was a bit tough and I was breathing heavy.  It was still a little hot and humid at this point and I was wearing a short sleeve shirt since it is the fall and I was in New England.  Up there it is nice because the leaves are changing more than they are down here. 

The trail was tough, but it is much better than the sections around here.  There are rocks, but far less than here in "Rocksylvania."  Most of it was very runnable.  There was a lot of pine forest too and it was an enjoyable climb.

I still had to walk stretches, but those were only brief.  This climb was only a couple hundred feet.  Not as big as some of the climbs that I've done.  Plus, I didn't actually go all the way to the top.

After climbing for some time, I got to Belter's Bump.  I guess this was a lookout to a mountain across the road.  You couldn't see that mountain too well with the trees in the way.  I was really hoping that I would find an overlook onto the race track at some point.  I did see a rock outcrop while I was at the track.  If you can go there, I never did so.

After the bump, it was flat for a bit and then climbed some more.  I came to a couple that was hiking.  Luckily, they were looking at a water section just off the trail.  I kept going.  Climbing and climbing.  Huffing and puffing.  It's always tough to see the top of a mountain when you are on it, but I think I was close to the top.  However, it started to get to rocky.  Breathing heavy was one thing, but I didn't want to deal with rocks.

I turned around after a mile to mile and a half into the climb.  Heading back was fun.  I didn't want to go too fast and trip in the middle of nowhere though.  I got back down the mountain and it was still early in my run.

I decided to head back on the AT, but this time in the opposite direction.  It headed toward the big mountain and I wondered if it would climb that.  I ran over a road bridge that is part of the trail.  Then when I got to a stoplight, I realized that the blazes when to the left inside of to the right and up the mountain.

I followed the blazes along the road.  This was boring and I wouldn't have done this much longer, but then they finally turned back into the woods.  I ran through this section and it was really a blast.  It was a lot of pine forest and rolling hills.  Nothing was too steep or too technical. 

Most of it was open too, although I did encounter some overgrown parts.  I ran through some big boulders too.  I was having fun.  When I got to 3.75 miles into the run, I figured I should head back.  I wanted to make it in before dark.

I ran back and enjoyed this section again.  I videotaped some of it.  I brought my GoPro along and managed to get a few good pictures on the run.

I ran past a really neat farm.  This time, I ran the long way around to the track's main gate.  There is a cool, old vineyard right before the track too.  There are a lot of nice charming quintessential New England houses in this rural area.

I got back into the track and hit mile 7.  I wanted to run another mile.  I headed down that paddock and decided to loop around there.  That was interesting because all the race teams were packing up and their equipment was everywhere.  I had to dodge it and it was kind of like a trail run.  I finished up at my campsite at mile 8.

It was a solid and fun run.  It was unique and the trail was easy to follow.  The weather was pretty good, although I still had some chafing issues.

This coming week will be very easy.  I have a 50K on Sunday and I need to rest.  I hiked about 3 or 4 miles on the AT this evening near my house.  I'll probably hike a little more.  I'll run and bike much less than usual.  My left calf is still a little sore and it definitely could use some rest.

8 miles - 1:23:08 (10:24 pace)

Easy Nor-Bath Run

After back to back days exploring some new places, today was just about easy and convenient.  I headed out to the Nor-Bath Trail for a basic 8 mile run.  I started from the east end of the trail as I often do and figured that I would run 4 miles out and 4 more back.

It was a nice day.  Actually, it was a little hotter than I would've liked, so I switched from a regular short sleeve shirt to a sleeveless one.  That was a good choice as I was soaked by the end of the run.  I'll take this weather any day though.  It was 100X better than the summertime.

I was a little slow in the beginning.  My calf was stiff like it has been.  I thought at first that I might struggle to even do 3 miles.  I just plodded along.

Crossing Airport Road was a breeze for a change.  That is rare during the middle of the afternoon.  This trail is kind of boring, but it amazing how much more enjoyable a run can be when the conditions are nice.  The first mile was kind of slow at just under 9 minutes.

There were a few people on the trail, but overall it wasn't too busy.  It rarely is.  That's why I was very surprised at what happened next.  I heard someone coming up from behind.  The guy passed me.  That's never happened on this trail before.  I was actually more impressed with myself for not getting into a race with him.  I could've run his pace, but it would've taken some work.  He turned off at Bicentennial Park and that was the end of that. 

I ran on as I still had a couple miles to go before I'd even turn around.  I felt great.  I was flying.  Without much effort, I was running in the low 8 range.  I got over the next road crossing easily.

My legs did start to bother me a little when I hit the pavement and the following road crossing.  That had some up and down and I struggled slightly with that too.  The pace didn't feel hard, but maybe it was a little brisker than I'm used to. 

When I came out to the neighborhood section, I decided to run on the sidewalk for a short distance until I got to mile 4.  I then turned and headed back.  Again, the pavement was tough.  I was wondering if I might have to slow my pace.

Things picked back up though and I was cruising along.  I guess I was headed slightly downhill.  That seems to make all of the difference.  The final 3 miles were solid.

I was just counting down the miles because I was getting hot.  It was great to get to miles 6 and 7.  Crossing Airport Road was frustrating this time.  I had to wait between 5-10 seconds.  That cost me some time in the final mile.

That last mile was still quick though.  I felt great on the other side of the road and just decided to push for the last half mile.  The overall pace even dropped a couple seconds after a 7:49 mile.  At some point, I do have to get back to working on my speed.

It was a good run and nice to be done with 8 miles rather quickly.  I've put in a solid week of shorter runs.  I plan on another run or two on the Appalachian Trail while I'm camping in Connecticut this weekend.  Tonight, I'm hoping to bike some more too.

  8 miles - 1:05:54 (8:14 pace)

Appalachian Trail in Bushkill

I've been meaning to check out some of the close sections of the Appalachian Trail for my runs.  Since this is supposed to be short mileage week, I decided to head to a section in Bushkill Township.  I hiked this spur trail (Kateleen Trail) with my dad a couple years ago and figured that it might be worth running.  It was getting dark that day, so we didn't check out too much of the AT itself.  We just walked by a shelter.

I don't go up that way often, so I didn't quite know how to get to the trailhead.  I had to go off of a combination of memory and reviewing a map an hour earlier.  Plus, I took a different road to get there.  At first, I ended up on the wrong road, but I did find the Moore Township Appalachia Park.  I had been wondering about that place.  It has some trails, but they appear to be small.  I might check it out in the future anyway.  It was definitely remote.

Eventually, I found the small parking lot I was looking for.  It is off of Old Mine Road.  As I passed the lot, a cop was parked in there.  By the time I came back, he was gone.

I knew this would be a tough run because I'd be going almost straight up from the bottom of the mountain.  There are no switchbacks, like the Wind Gap section has.  I probably should've warmed up on the road first.  Maybe I'll do that in the future.

It was a decent weather day.  It was a little warmer than yesterday, but overall not too bad.  I knew I'd sweat a bit today though.  I had on a shirt, although I didn't wear orange.  I think this is a hunting area.  I'll have to be more cautious in the future.

Going right uphill was definitely difficult, although it wasn't as steep at the bottom.  The big issue was that this trail was full of loose rocks.  My feet couldn't get any grip and I had to work a lot harder. 

I knew even making it up the 3/4 mile to the top would be tough.  I figured that I would have to walk.  That happened at less than 1/2 mile into the run.  I walked for about a tenth of a mile and ran again for another tenth.  One section is really steep and has these high steps.  I'm not sure I could even run up them.

It seemed to flatten out a bit toward the top.  Still, this was a tough 3/4 mile.  Hopefully in the future I can run all the way up and just recovery when I get there.  My left calf was fairly sore on the climb.

At the top, I came to a wide powerline.  It is flat on the mountaintop, so I actually didn't have a view.  I ran across and began going on the Appalachian Trail.  This part immediately sucked.  As I feared, it was super rocky.  The rocks would not have been too bad, expect they all seemed to point straight up.  I had to be very careful or I could really hurt my foot.  This was a super slow go.  It is good technical practice, but I would really worry about tripping if I was very tired.

I didn't go very far before turning around.  I figured I'd run along the powerline and see if I could get any views.  That was a good choice.  I ran to the north first.  This area was wide open and not too rocky.  It had a gentle climb to it.  When I got to the top, I had a spectacular view of the mountains all around.  Unfortunately, I realized part way up the mountain that I forgot my GoPro.  Next time, I'll have to bring it with me.

I ran back and headed the other direction.  It was kind of hot in this exposed area.  This direction wasn't quite as easy to run.  There was some high grass along the trail and some rocks.  I ran on it for a bit, but it did seem like an area where rattlesnakes could potentially hangout.  I didn't want to chance it all alone on the mountain, so I turned around.  Maybe when it is colder, I'll run that direction and check out the view.

I was now around 2 miles into the run.  It was a slow 2 miles though.  I figured that I might as well head back down.  Going downhill was fun, although I had to be cautious with all the rocks.  The steps part was quite tricky.  I passed a couple guys that were hiking near the top.  They did look a little shady, but I didn't worry about it.

When I got to the bottom, I was around 3 miles into the run.  I still had some time to kill before I went to a cross country meet.  Therefore, I decided to run on Old Mine Road.  I did that for about half a mile and turned around.  I finished up near my car, with 4 miles in the books.

They were a challenging 4 miles, but it was fun.  I'll definitely run here again since it is close.  Maybe I'll do hill repeats here.  I'd like to run the whole hill in the future.

I biked in the evening again and finally bought a much needed bike light.  Tomorrow, I'm hoping to run again somewhere.  I'd like to bike some more too.  It might be my last workout day of the week, before I go camping.  It has been a productive week so far.

4 miles - 44:53 (11:13 pace)

D&L Trail (South of Easton)

Most people run the normal, popular trails.  Me on the other hand, I'm always looking for something "off the beaten path."  Every time I drive on mountains, I am looking for hidden trails along the road.  I guess I love to explore and run alone.

Today's run wasn't totally remote, but it definitely wasn't a common running place either.  The D&L from Cementon to Lehighton is well groomed and at least fairly well used.  The section from Allentown to Easton is the same.  I've never run on the section south of Easton, so I decided to run there.  It was definitely a different experience from the other parts of the trail.

I knew directly below Easton, the trail had washed out during flooding.  I figured that I could go a little farther south though and actually wouldn't be all that far from home.  It took be about 20 minutes to get to the Theodore Roosevelt Recreation Area.  This is an old lock house on the canal.  There was only one other car in the parking lot when I began the run (late in the evening).

I wanted to run the trail south.  I had driven by some of this section and I was wondering if it was even runnable.  I thought some of it would be washed out and maybe overgrown.  I was looking for more of a rocky nature trail type run than a typical smooth canal path.

The run started off with a lot of smooth running and fairly well maintained trail.  Still, it was a far cry from the nice stone paths on the Lehigh River section.  This Delaware River portion had high grass in between the doubletrack.  Some of the doubletrack had stone, other parts were dirt and rocky.  I cruised along and was enjoying myself.  Every now and then there were views of the water.

The farther out I got, the rougher the terrain was.  I suspected that I wouldn't be able to ride my bike through this section and that was definitely the case.  There was still a path the whole way though.  At times, it was a singletrack and occasionally it went by muddy sections.

I was enjoying the run so much largely because of the weather.  It was a perfect, cool fall day.  I could not have asked for better weather.  This area is exposed to the sun, so it is probably brutal in the summer.

Somewhere around 1.5 miles was the section that I was most looking forward to.  On the road, there is a clear view of the river, with a mountain on the other side of the road.  The wall on the mountain side is made of stone.  From the map, it appears that this would be the Kleinhans Creek Aqueduct.

I knew the canal was very narrow here.  I was hoping this section would be passable.  It was, but barely.  At one point, I was running on a ledge and if I fell to the left, I would've fallen into the river.  I could've fell the other direction and it would've been into high grass, so I just slanted myself in that direction.  The view was definitely worth the trip and running in and out of this section was fun.  I took my GoPro and got some pictures too.

After this section, the trail was back to being more of a normal canal towpath.  There wasn't much going on.  I had passed a guy walking his dog in the aqueduct section and another guy earlier, but few people use this section.  Just what I like.

I ended up running behind a restuarant that was on the other side of the canal.  The plan was to run out about 3 miles.  I was hoping by then I could get to Riegelsville.  I had to be careful because it was getting dark quickly.

At around 3 miles, I arrived at Riegelsville.  This is a cool small little town along the river.  There was a neat bridge that ran overhead.  I passed a restuarant that had tables outside right next to the path.  That would've been an awesome place to get a drink if I had time.  Maybe next time around.

I went out just past the bridge.  There were some cool houses with their backyards right up against the canal on the other side of it.  My side had a some houses with barking dogs.  I didn't go far out and then I turned around.  One of the dogs came to the edge of the yard and barked at me.  I stopped running briefly and he went away.

I figured that I had to at least cross the bridge over the Delaware River.  It was an awesome little bridge.  I ran over and had a great view of the river on both sides.  I saw a runner on the opposite side.  When I got to New Jersey, I realized that there wasn't much over there.  There wasn't a point to running there, so I turned around and headed back.  By now, I was at about 3.5 miles.  I figured 7 miles would be a perfect run.

I headed back as it got darker and darker.  When I was back on the canal, I noticed the runner up ahead.  He was the only runner (and one of the few people) that I saw the whole time.  I was gradually catching him, but he was pretty far ahead.  At one point he stopped and was walking.  He turned around and saw me and began running again.  He crossed the canal to the restuarant and I never did see him again.

I was happy that I made it to the difficult section before it was dark.  That might've been tough to navigate in the dark.  The only other interesting thing was the next section.  I was nearly finished when a deer ran up the canal and onto the towpath in front of me.  It didn't really have anywhere to go, so it ran on the path in front of me for some time.  That was pretty cool, although it was getting so dark that I couldn't see it well.  Eventually I guess it ran down to the river.

I arrived back at my car at 6.3 miles.  I can't just stop there, I always have to get to the next mile.  I was curious about the canal in the other direction, so I decided on a short out and back.  This part was interesting because just north of the park, the towpath goes directly behind houses.  It is like you are in people's backyards, except you can see the trail.  There were some nice houses too.

I didn't go very far.  I turned around at 6.7 miles.  I finished up at mile 7 and it was getting very dark.  It was perfect timing.  This was an excellent run and exactly what I was hoping for.  I will certainly be back there to run again and hopefully farther.  It will probably be sooner rather than later too!

I ended up biking in the dark later on.  I'm hoping to ride some tomorrow and I'd like to try to get in a run before I attend a cross country meet.  I really do need to explore the AT not too far from my house sometime.  If I have the time and energy to climb, I'll do that.  This is supposed to be a taper week.  Since I'm camping at a race over the weekend, my training will probably be slacking at the end of the week.  I don't mind working hard now.

7 miles - 1:00:25 (8:38 pace)

Switchback Trail Run

Today was a very busy day.  Chris called me yesterday and wanted to see if I would pace him and his friend Ryan on my bike while they ran this morning.  They wanted to preview the Runner's World Half Marathon course.  There are so many turns on the course and it is tough to follow.  Of course we got lost on the one section that I didn't know very well in one of the neighborhoods.  It ended up being 14.5 miles total.

That workout was a good warmup.  It was nice and slow on the bike.  They ran fast of course.  I've been wanting to head to Jim Thorpe and check out some of the trails.  The place is beautiful (with huge mountains everywhere).  I convinced my dad to drive up there with me and my mom came along too.  It was only going to be short run.

There are supposed to be some really amazing trails, but for now I was just sticking to one of the main ones, the Switchback Trail.  The trail used to transport coal rail cars between Jim Thorpe and Summit Hill.  It later became a ride and a big attraction that put Jim Thorpe on the map.  Now, it is a recreation trail.

I started at Mauch Chunk Lake Park, outside of town.  This was a pretty setting to begin.  They had some cool signs there that dated the history of the trail.  They also had an old rail car.

I ran toward Jim Thorpe.  It is a nice stone path through the woods.  I cruised along and enjoyed the beautiful fall day.  It is so nice to be able to run without sweating everywhere.

The trail was rather flat in this section.  It was like a normal rail trail around here.  There were quite a few families and people riding and biking.  The forest that it went through had a lot of pine trees.  I love pine forests.  They are so cool.  The trail also ran along a creek.  It was so peaceful.

I plugged away.  I wasn't feeling too bad, but I can't say I felt great either.  My calf is still a bit sore after last week's long run.  A softer dirt surface might've helped that out a little, but I didn't have that here.

I was disappointed that this section wasn't more technical.  I know there are some pretty technical parts of it with elevation change.  After looking at the maps, it appears they are on the upper loop.  Instead, I just had a nice picturesque run.  Since I was only planning to run about an hour, I wasn't too concerned.  I just wanted to get a feel for the place.

The path went out about 2 miles before coming to Flagstaff Road.  I could've actually parked at this spot and I might've made it close to Jim Thorpe.  The problem is that I was unable to find the trail.  I ran along the road a bit and went on to what I thought was the trail.  It was a nice, short singletrack section.  It came out back where I had come from though.  I then ran the other direction and came to a dead end in the pine forest.

I tried running on Flagstaff Road to see if I could find the trail again, but I had no luck there either.  When I got home, I saw that it was actually behind some industrial building across the road.  Now I know.

I was able to get to about 3.5 miles before heading back, since I was running all over the place.  Going back on the main trail was a little tough because it is slightly uphill.  I got used to it though.

When I was heading out initially, I saw signs for a couple spur trails.  I decided to run up one of them.  It was the Fire Line Trail.  This was a fun singletrack with some climbing.  I only went out about a quarter of a mile though.  It was good to explore a little.

I got back to main trail and ran toward the lake.  It wasn't too long and I was back there.  I finished up right at 6 miles.  That was a solid day.  I then noticed the trail across the street from the lake.  I'll have to try that direction next time.  Hopefully I can find the more technical parts in the future.

The ride and run weren't quite enough.  I wanted to ride a few more miles.  I went out in the dark and rode around the neighborhood by house.  I added a solid 10.5 miles to a productive day.

I've already biked 25 miles, so I'll likely have 100 miles riding by the end of the week.  With my 50K coming up, I'll probably taper the running portion of my workouts this week.  I'm feeling good and energized, so I might consider running again tomorrow.  The weather could play a big role in that decision.  I haven't been to Trexler in some time, so maybe I'll go there.

6 miles - 54:59 (9:10 pace)

Back on the D&L

I've slacked off a little lately and today was my first run of the week.  Of course that meant that it had to be long.  I didn't feel like the usual trails, so I decided that I would head to the D&L and start at Cove Road.  I figured since I ran so well on the other section of the D&L for the marathon, that I might be able to do well here.  I was wrong.

I used to run here all the time, but with my quads getting so beat up, I stopped running anywhere that wasn't a nature trail.  It was a perfect, cool fall day.  Actually, I was a little hot in the sun, so I went shirtless.  That was a questionable call.  I was a bit chilly in the shade and this trail has a lot of that.

I started off heading north toward Slatington.  My legs felt awesome in the beginning.  I felt like I could go so fast and I often had to hold myself back.  For once, I was relaxed in the beginning of this run and it didn't feel like a grind.

I just took in the scenery, although after some time, it gets kind of repetitive.  It is trees, trees and more trees with a river on the other side and some cliff walls too.  There are a couple houses here and there, but not much.  I did come across quite a few bikers, some walkers and the occasional runner.

My plan was to run 20 miles.  I wanted to make sure I got out over 5 miles, so that I would be over halfway done with my run when I arrived back at my car.  I had my handheld bottle with me, so I could go a lot farther.  I never ran with that here in the past.

I felt awesome for about 4 miles.  Then, the repetitiveness and pounding of the hard surface took its toll.  My left calf started to get sore.  This area actually wasn't a problem at all until the marathon.  The good thing was that my quads were holding up.  I was hoping that all of the riding and running on soft surfaces would help.

I figured that I would try to get to Slatington and turn around.  I thought that would be about 5 miles.  There was a hot dog stand in the parking lot when I got there.  That is something new.  I decided to keep going a bit farther.  I figured that I could at least get to mile 6.

I knew going past Slatington would be a gamble.  The section between there and the Lehigh Gap bothers my legs even more than the other section.  I kept going though.  I was enjoying the scenery and not feeling too bad.

I went to mile 6 and then 6.5 and just kept going.  I ran past the small airport just near the Gap.  That is cool and the view is neat.  I decided to just keep going to 7.5 miles.  That would get me to 15 miles and I could quit at my car if I had to.

The 2 miles or more heading back to Slatington were a real grind.  My legs were getting sorer and sorer and I felt like they were tied to the ground.  I knew it would get better at Slatington, but at that point, I still would have 5 miles to go to my car.

Finally, I made it to the Slatington Trailhead.  My water was almost gone and I planned on refilling it there.  There are some nice bathrooms there and I thought a water fountain too.  I guess I was wrong about that though and I had no money with me to buy a drink at the hot dog stand.  I just had to be cautious with my water.  At least I would be on the cooler section of the trail until I got to my car.

The legs did feel a little better when I got onto the different surface, but they were still sore.  I just had to try to ignore them.  I had to keep pushing along.  Still, I couldn't believe how awful I felt at miles 11 and 12.  I felt amazing in the marathon until about mile 17 and I was running almost the same pace as that day.  Maybe I didn't recover enough from the marathon, but I doubt that is the case.  I've hardly run at all since the race.

I just focused on each mile.  Getting to 13.1 was big.  Passing one of the houses, a big dog came to the fence.  I was a little worried because he was so huge that I thought maybe he could jump the entire fence.  I guess he was just being playful.

The last 2 miles felt awful.  I was getting worse and worse.  There was some slight downhill, but even that wasn't helping.  At mile 14, I was falling off like crazy.  I knew by now that even stopping at my car and resting for a bit wouldn't help.  I would just have to get to mile 15 and call it a day.  That's exactly what I did.

I am so disappointed with how this run went.  After feeling great during the marathon, I thought maybe I was finally past the leg soreness issue.  I guess not.  I suppose it just depends a lot on the surface that I run on.  I know that I need new shoes and that might help, but they are the same ones that I used in the marathon and had no problems.  I guess the pavement and then dirt trail helped a lot during that race.  I felt just about as bad today after 15 miles as I did after the marathon's 26.2 miles last week.

I could've pushed another 2 or 3 miles and maybe 5 miles if I was willing to kill myself.  I am so close to my 50K and won't get a lot of benefit from this run, so I decided that it just wasn't worth it.  I'll save my legs for the trails.

The one good thing to come from this is that I won't waste any money running the D&L Marathon.  Since last week's marathon went so well, I was actually considering it.  That won't happen now though, since my legs can't handle this trail.  I'll stick to the ultrarunning.

I biked 15 more easy miles on the Nor-Bath Trail after dinner.  That helped loosen the legs up some.  I'm hoping I can run tomorrow, but I don't have much time.  I don't know if I'm working, but I'm going to the Eagles game in the evening.  I'd like to run in the morning, but getting up is always difficult.  Maybe I can run down there while we are tailgating.  I'll have to look into it.

15 miles - 2:08:16 (8:33 pace) 

Kind of Pointless Run

I have an engineering degree, so you can say I like numbers.  Most weeks, I've set a goal of 40 miles of running and 100 miles of biking.  I wasn't planning on doing it this week, but when I recovered so well from my marathon, I figured I might as well do so.  After all, I didn't have to run much after 26.2 miles on Sunday.

I had to cut my last run a couple miles shorter than what I would've liked because of humidity.  That meant that I needed 2 more miles of running to get to 40.  I had some time this afternoon, so I went for a short run.  I decided to drive to the industrial park near my house.  I figured I could loop around the nearby neighborhood.

My last run was only a couple days ago, but what a difference in the weather.  It basically went from summer weather to late fall weather.  It is like we just skipped the beginning of fall.  I wasn't even sure what to wear.  Since I wasn't running much and wouldn't sweat, I opted for a jacket.  I quickly took that off though.

I ran a short out and back in the industrial park.  It was .4 miles long.  I ran at what I guess I would call a moderate pace.  It wasn't hard, but it wasn't easy either.  The first mile, as I warmed up, was certainly easier than the 2nd one.  It was an 8:16 opening mile.

I ran into the neighborhood next.  It was a nice little loop and a chance to see some new houses and some houses that were under construction.  After leaving the neighborhood, it was mostly downhill to my car.  That meant that the pace was pretty quick.  It was a 7:26 final mile.  I didn't feel like I was working too hard either.

I felt like I might be able to run that 2nd mile pace for a half marathon.  If that were the case, that would be pretty impressive.  Maybe my endurance is actually helping my speed too.  I hope I'm getting stronger.

The thing I really had to do over the last two days was ride my bike.  I slacked off riding earlier in the week and only had 30 miles in the books with 2 days remaining in the week.  Yesterday I rode twice, once 15 miles and the other 20 miles.  I ended up doing the same thing today.  Two of those rides were after dark too.  That was fun, but cold.  Riding 70 miles in two days wasn't easy, but I'm feeling good.  It is nice to have another solid week done. 

I might ride again tomorrow if I have time.  If not, I'll definitely run on Monday and hopefully ride.  The run will be a 20 miler.  I need to incorporate some more of those in my training, especially if it stays cool.

2 miles - 15:41 (7:51 pace)