The Best Laid Plans

Today I had 14 on the schedule. I chose Betzwood as the location; hoping for a nice flat run. Yup, that's what I thought. I arrived at 7:30 figuring I'd get in 2 miles before meeting anyone else who showed up at 8:00.

Well the trail (both the River Trail and the SRT) were a chunky icy mess. I ran 2 miles up on the SRT but I knew this was not going to be the way to go. Jeff, Marjorie and Julius arrived at 8:00 and we decided to go over the creepy bridge and doing the loop. We made an attempt at the River Trail first but one look told us that was not the way to go either. No wonder all the other folks we saw this morning were seen coming back up the driveway after too short a time.

Marjorie and Jeff had other plans I guess because they went out for about 30-45 minutes and turned around. Julius stayed with me for the loop. I had not run in 10 days; Julius said he had not been out in a month. So it was a bit of a chore for both of us but we finished with 3 and 1's the entire way. Ok almost the entire way. We allowed ourselves to walk up the one hill. You who have done the loop know the one I'm talking about.

Upon returning to the parking lot at Betzwood we met three folks for the couch to 5k training. More on that in the USAFit/Philly blog.

At 10:30 Susan, John and Kristen arrived and Kristen's dog Roxie. Kristen was out for her first run since finishing the Disney Marathon in January. John was testing out his knee and back and Susan is getting back to running this year after a year of injury and botched surgeries. I did not want to go back to the loop so we ran down to the trailhead and back then continued over to the other side of Trooper Road for two circuits around the apartment/condominium complex there. All in all we finished just over 4.5 miles.

So I managed almost 13 running 3 and 1's and 45 minutes of walking with the couch to 5k group. My aerobic fitness was severely challenged at the beginning of the day. My legs were scolding me for the final 1.5 miles. All in all a great day for having been off for 10 days.

Next week I have 18 miles to do. I MUST get out this week to keep the momentum going. I think my best strategy will be to go to Oaks at 7 and go out for 5. Then meet up with the 8:00 gang for 6. And then finish with 7 with the 10:30 gang. Fortunately at Oaks I have lots of choices.

2 weeks; 2 months; 2 days until Gettysburg! Registration opens for Marine Corps in 11 days.