Snowbirthday

If you can't have snow falling (think blizzard) for your birthday, having snow on the ground from the third significant snowfall in a week the day before is pretty darn good. :) The snow on the ground made for an awesome trail run at Ridley Creek State Park as well.

I had originally planned to meet some friends at 8 am for 54 minutes  ('cause I'm 54 today get it?) on the Blue Trail at RCSP. Last night, however, the forecast showed rain through 8 am. I messaged my friends that as much as I wanted company I really did not want to run in a cold rain. As it turned out, about 8:30 a.m. this morning the sun was shining brightly so off I went.

The park was open but not all of its road were. The road to picnic area #9 where the Blue Trail leaves in a lollipop loop was closed. I headed to the mansion parking lot instead. I grabbed the park map and plotted a route that took me on the yellow-white-blue and back to yellow again instead.

Most of the trails in the lower parts of the park looked like this. The ice was covering pockets of cold water. My feet were numb within 10 minutes. After a while I didn't notice anymore. 

Many of the trails had been visited before me by the park wildlife. It made me smile to see how they followed the path. I saw few hearty birds along the trails but nothing bigger. 

The best parts though were the unbroken trail sections just waiting for me! Here began a longish section of flat and gentle climbs which meant I could run the whole stretch.

My natural slowness was made slower by the snow and the fact that I haven't been running a lot or very long lately. It took me almost an hour and a half to go just over 3.5 miles. The downhills were tough due to the slippery wet snow and the uphills well they are uphills! :) Still I got my heart rate up and gave my legs a good workout and my feet have forgiven me now that they are warm again. 

I have a long way to go to Tyler 10K but I'll get there. 

I saw very few people and none of them on the trails. I came off the trail onto the multi-use trail at one point and a gentleman making his way along that path said "You got your chains on?". "As a matter of fact, I do" I said and lifted my foot so he could see. The look on his face was priceless. We both smiled and went on our way. 

Oh and as for not running in the rain? The sun was melting the ice off the trees at a fantastic rate. I was 'rained' on most of the way. But with the sun shining through the trees and everything so sparkly it was ok. I was drenched when I got home but very happy. 

Tomorrow is a rest day. Tuesday we are going out for my birthday dinner. Hopefully I'll get out again Wednesday either to the trail at Haverford College or to do some hill work in Media. 

Happy Snowbirthday from me to you! 

The Long and Winding Road of a Weekend

Very little of what I expected actually happened this weekend. That is not a bad thing it's just a fact.

I had the day off work on Friday to go to the doctor for my treadmill test. That was planned and I'm happy to say all is well and doc was happy to clear me for any and all activity after that. I was so excited after that I accepted an invitation to join Misery Loves Company on a trail run on Saturday. I spent the rest of the day running errands and odd tasks "knowing" that after the trail run Saturday I would be wanting to lay low until my shift at Back on My Feet 20 in 24 with Tootsie from 9:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.

HA! Goes to show what I 'know'. On Friday afternoon we received messages that BoMF and the City decided it was best to cancel Saturday and make the event a 12 hour run on Sunday only from 7 am to 7 pm. The weather was awful all week and was expected to peak on Saturday with severe thunderstorms rolling through in the evening. I think it was a wise decision but there are some comments floating around FB that there is more to this than what is being said since this event has always taken place in hot, humid weather. It's summer in July after all. I don't recall the severe thunderstorm, high wind threat in past year though. As it turned out the storms did roll through around 10 or so shutting down the Electric Run 5k and delaying the start of the Taylor Swift concert at the Linc.

What's Next?

Once again conjuring up my inner "Josiah Bartlett". :) (Miss that show!)

In 2013 I planned to complete a spring marathon, a century ride and a half marathon. The last two in the same weekend. HA! Life sure has a way of humbling a person doesn't it? It's all good. I learned a lot about me and my body in these past two months; and I'm not done.

So the marathon didn't happen. The bike ride won't either. I toyed very briefly with the idea of doing a shorter distance but bagged that pretty quickly. I haven't put in any significant bike miles in over three months so I have no idea where I'm starting from. I notified the MS folks yesterday and will volunteer for the ride instead. :)

I've also decided that I won't be doing the Ocean City half either. I'll be in Ocean City on September 29th, I'm just not running. I love OC and the race. I'll cheer on my friends and a few hundred random strangers instead. A good time will be had by all!

I've decided instead to take full advantage of this opportunity I've been given to reboot.

St Peter's Village

Today I drove out to St. Peter's Village in Chester County to explore the trails there. I can't believe I've lived here as long as I have and didn't know this was here. Yesterday I selected a 30 mile radius using this cool mapping tool. I can't remember where I was introduced to this tool. Probably in someone's blog or on Facebook. It's very useful and it is how I found this village and trails. My camera battery was shot so there are no photos. I need to check into that as it should not have been used up already. Annoying but now I have an excuse to go back so I can show you what I saw.

Not that I need one. Today was a great day. After a week + of daily summer thunderstorms and humidity today started out humid but burned off quickly. I arrived about 10:15 and walked the roughly block and a half that constitutes the town first. There is a bakery, an ice cream parlor and an 'antique' arcade. Antique because it has no electronic games that most kids play today. It's mostly pinball games that I grew up playing. (We had one in the basement of our house for a time too). There is also an Inn and I think we should go back there for dinner sometime. It sits along the creek (as does the whole town). The creek was especially rapid today due to all the rain we've had. It sounded glorious and had I brought dry clothes to change into I would have been sorely tempted to jump boulders and risk getting soaked. I had errands to run on my way home though and didn't want to be in the Acme smelling like a drowned rat. Next time for sure!

Next I wandered over the creek to check out the trails.

Blockbuster Weekend Part II

Sunday - June 23

Today I went to Forbidden Drive for a 2 hour guided hike. I had a good time but probably would have had just as much fun on my own or with friends just wandering around. One thing I learned is that there are way more trails there than I ever imagined. I think it would make a great bucket list item to try to cover all 50 miles of identified trails. But I'd likely get sidetracked on the unofficial trails. At any rate I expect to spend time back there. Now I see why the trail running group likes to go there so often.

Summer is still coming along nicely. It's more humid today and in the last few hours it's gotten a lot more humid. There is a chance of thurnderstorms just about every day this week. After the last few days there is no room to complain about that.

I'm not brave enough to take a photo from the front.
It's a narrow ledge and a long way down.

The only covered bridge inside the city limits of a major US city.

Click here for more photos.

BTW, I'm not sure why I titled these last two posts blockbuster weekend. Probably because I'm thinking of summer starting and that's usually when all the big movies come out.

Recap of my week.

Well I did it. It wasn't pretty but I kept my promise to complete 25  miles for the week. Today was a test of the committment and I'm pleased to say I passed. After yesterday's 10 miles on the hills I needed 6 more today to get to 25.

Emma and I met Pete and John at Ridley Creek State Park for some trail running. The first mile my legs were fine. After that they were a little annoyed with me. "Hello!!?? Remember the 10 very hilly miles yesterday?" It was tough to ignore the whining. I bailed on the last trail hill up the white trail. If you know the park this takes you straight up from the lower part of the paved loop to the upper. I chose to run back on the paved loop and met them at the parking lot.

This put just under 4 miles on my total. So when we arrived home I let Emma back in the house and headed out for the balance. It was hard but I can honestly say I did it.

Nest week is an increase week - 27 wth 13 mile long run on Saturday. But first, a rest day tomorrow :) :)

A New Plan

This running thing definitely keeps me busy and thinking. The past 2 weeks (maybe longer I tend to be obsessive about these things and lose track of time) I've been working on a new plan. I read a lot and as you may imagine some of that is about running. As with anything else I take in all the 'advice' and keep what makes sense to me and put the rest aside. Some I throw out but most I keep tucked away on the chance that it just doesn't make sense in my current mindset but might later on. But I'm digressing... surprise surprise.

I've started on a plan of tracking weekly mileage. I know that I must do the long runs if I'm going to survive the races I've entered but there are weeks when the long run is tricky because of my schedule. So I've opted for tracking weekly mileage and with some advance planning I can make up for lack of long run by adding the missed miles to my weekday runs. I'm also back to taking Mon and Fri off from running and going back to running back to back Sat and Sun whenever possible.

I looked at what I had been doing recently and settled on 25 miles to start. I also switched my view of the week. I was used to putting Sat and Sun at the beginning (ala Phillyfit) but switched that. This works better with my way of thinking which is that the week starts on Monday.

So this week, which began Feb 20 looked like this:

5, 3, 5, 0, 0, 8, 3.5 = 24.5

I only managed 3.5 and ran on Monday anyway because a) it was a holiday and b) I had been slacking prior to this. I'm working in 4 week cycles so the next three look like this:

0, 2, 4, 2, 0, 11, 6 = 25 (same total as week 1)
0, 2, 4, 2, 0, 13, 6 = 27 (10% increase over weeks 1 and 2)
0, 3, 7, 3, 0, 0, 0 = 13  (Half of week 3, and the weekend off)
The next 4 week cycle will start with week 3's total for two weeks then increase by 10% followed by 1/2 again. And so on. Stay tuned.

Ultimately I'd like to keep my long run mileage up and going up. Instead of "starting over" after every race. My goal race in 2012 is the Philly Half. I have other races planned but I'm going to treat them as training runs and keep up my mileage for those weeks. Somewhere I plan to work in a week off from running. Probably every 3 months. I'll talk about that more later when I have it figured out.
Today's run was 3.5 miles on the Rocky Run trail in Middletown Twp by the Wawa dairy. My ankle didn't like it, but I did! :)

8 Miles at Forbidden Drive

I began my day today with 7 other Phillyfitters. We had fun running along the left bank (coming off Northwestern Avenue) of the Wissahickon Creek. You can read about that part of my monring here.

As a group we turned around just past the Valley Green Inn at the 2.5 marker on the trail. At the 1 mile marker I told the group I was heading back out again. I wanted to complete 8 miles today. We were at 4.25 and I was concerned that if I went back to the start with them I would be tempted not to go back out again.

I went back out to the spot where we came down off the trails. I remembered that we were at 2.75 there so if I went back along the trail that way I’d be just over 8 miles when I finished. I also knew the trail would keep my mind off the miles and provide natural walk breaks ..or climb breaks anyway.

Without my friends to guide me (friends who had run these trails before) I wandered off the actual path a few times but not far. Every so often I’d realize I was picking my way through tree roots and rocks when there was a smoother path just below or above me. I enjoyed the run and took some extra pictures on the way back (see below). The sun was higher now than when we made our first pass so many of the icy spots were now less slippery but as a result more muddy. It was fun :)

Shortly after getting onto the trail I met two bikers. I had just come down a particularly rocky portion and they were standing there looking up. I said, “Good luck with that”. They laughed. As I approached Bells Mills Road (the end of the trail) I saw two guys running toward me. I’m pretty sure it was these same two people. The one had bright red hair and beard. Kind of hard to miss. I didn’t ask but I’m guessing they locked up the bikes and decided to run out Forbidden Drive and then back along the trail to their bikes.

I saw a few people and their dogs. All were friendly thank goodness (the dogs and the people). One woman had three golden retrievers with her. None on a leash and all disappointed that I did not want to stop and play. It was a good outing. I feel good.

Day 28 and counting…. Here are some photos from today's run.

Me and my shadow

Either somebody decided this log was too large to jump
Or they wanted a seat to watch the falls to the left.

The group came down these steps
I went back up

Pretty isn't it?

Day 21: Trail running!

I had the best time trail running with Phillyfit today. You can read about it here.

Day 21. Three weeks of running every day. I had 8 on my schedule. I don't think I quite got there. It was a little over 7 I think. All my gadgets failed me today. My watch measured .1 and then froze. After running about 5 (according to a friend's measurement) with the trail group I went out for another 2 or so. My friend John T came with me. We were planning to do 3 and 1's after running most of the 5 on the trails. My gymboss reset itelf again. It worked but not properly. *sigh*.

I ran in old shoes today know that we would get dirty and possibly wet. The shoes are not  completely spent but I will have to decide soon if I want to purchase trail shoes or just keep running on my regular shoes which may mean they will wear out quicker. That's a decision for another day though. I had too much fun on the trails to think about that now.

Day 13

1 mile today the 13th consecutive day of running. It almost felt like cheating. I felt like I could have gone further. And maybe when I get further into this I will boost my minimum to more than 1 mile. For now though I'm happy to still be doing it.

I'll be running most Saturdays with the group from here through the start of Phillyfit. I'll use that for my longest runs as best I can making up any difference on my own. I'd like to do trail runs with Pete's group. That will certainly keep my pace down for the longer runs. I can work on speed during the week.

One run at a time. :)

Right now looking forwad to trails tomorrow with Pete's group and New Years day run on Sunday with a bunch of Phillyfitters.

I just did some addition on my training schedule and as of tomorrow (assuming I complete the miles) I will have completed 40 miles since December 18. Not bad for half a month. And there are 99 miles on the schedule for January. At this rate I'll need to start breaking in new shoes in mid Feb to be ready for Lehigh Valley.

Christmas Trail Run.

Yesterday marked the completion of one week of at least 1 mile running or walking. 6 of those days I ran. On Monday I walked. I've decided that from here on out if I decide to walk it should be more than a mile. But truly the purpose is to keep moving so it's not a big deal really. My total for the week; 19 miles.

I knew I wanted something a little softer on the knees today but I didn't want to ride all the way out to the Perkiomen or Betzwood trails. Pete, one of the Phillyfit coaches, runs on trails in Middletown Twp so I decided to check out that option. All these years and I didn't even know these trails existed. I decided on the Linvill Trail. Checking the map I felt comfortable that it followed a route that was safe for me to run alone. It was.

The trail was by no means flat so I power walked up the steeper climbs. I was not breaking any speed records but I was moving well the entire time. The trail was covered in leaves and in one spot they covered a puddle with a thin layer of ice which I ended up crashing through. It was cold! I was having fun.

The trail connects to the Indian Echo trail which I remember comes in off 352 where the (former, I think) Girl Scout Camp is/was. I ran 15 mintues out and turned around. It was very quiet and pretty. I saw a lot of squirrels and smelled a lot of wood burning from the fireplaces in the nearby homes (many of which I could see from the trail). It was a cold morining - low 30s- but clear blue skies.

I crested the last hill on my return and I heard the dog coming. I couldn't see it but I could hear the chain around it's neck and the footsteps (pawsteps) through the leaves. I stopped. Out of one of the yards comes this adorable sheep dog looking thing. It bouned up the hill, ears flapping and greeted me. Adorable looking or not I am not fond of strange dogs. "I won't hurt you, if you don't hurt me" I told the dog. The dog continued to dance around me urging me to continue to run. I didn't see or hear anyone at the house, but I was still a little hesitant to run as the dog would likely have tripped me up with its enthusiasm. Then I heard someone call "Maaaagiii". I looked at the dog "Maggi! Go home!", I said. To her credit she looked torward home but looked back with a tilt of her head that said, "Yeah, I don't think so".

Another minute passed and I didn't see anyone coming from the house and whoever it was didn't call again. So I decided to start walking toward my car and Maggi followed. I heard the storm door on the house slam and out came a man in sweat pants with bare feet trying to get a jacket on as he ran toward the trail. "She just wants to say Merry Christmas" he said. I smiled back at him. "She seems friendly enough". He called to her and she started to go to him so I continued my run toward the car. Maggi was beside me in a flash. I ran back toward her owner and she began running wide circles around us - just out of reach. If dogs could laugh, she was. Finally the man, barefeet and all, began running up the hill away from me and Maggi bouned after him. When she was a good distance, I hightailed it to my car laughing all the way.

I will go back to that trail. It was fun and there is much more to it than what I saw. I'm wondering if I'll meet Maggi again.