Day 50 - Keep moving forward

Today for a walk I did my 3 mile loop. My energy level feels really good this week. The days I had my cold I was going out but the energy was not there. Today I was just trying to keep focused and moving along as fast as I could. It felt like a heat wave at 37°. I finished the loop in 37:39. That is a12:36 pace for the 3 mile loop and the legs felt good.

Tonight I left the house a little after 6 for a road run. With the chance of some more snow on Friday I thought I better get a faster run in tonight. How fast I will be running I never know until I get out on the road for a mile or two to see how I feel. I have a hard time following a schedule because some days I feel like running fast and others I don’t have much energy. I found out going by feel in my training works the best for me. So on the days I have the energy I take advantage of it. I changed from my normal loop and was trying to run a lot of different streets around town I never run on in a while. Half way through the run I had a big dog jump at me. It’s been a while since that happened but I was ready for it. I even made eye contact with the owner and the dog, slowed down and thought it was cool to keep moving. I didn’t say a word and kept moving forward after he jumped at me. Then the owner starts to yell and yank the dog around. I think if the dog would have been on a leash this could have been avoided. Finishing my run with an average pace of 7:38 for the 10 miles. I feel I am getting stronger little by little. Can't wait for the weekend and it's only Wednesday. The temps look cold but with some new snow on top of the slush the conditions should be great!

Since I didn't get any photo's today I thought I would post two of my favorite pictures I snapped a couple of years ago. The one I call it "Nature's Highway" because it looks like a crazy road in nature. The other one is just a cool colored insect but i'm not sure what it is. Just remember keep moving forward and enjoy the views around you!

1-19-2011 - 3 miles - 37:49 - walk
1-19-2011 - 10 miles - 1:16:21 - run

Day 49 - Ice run

I woke up around 2:30 a.m. to the sound of sleet against my windows. Looking out the windows I could see through, most of them were coated in ice, I was hoping for more snow by that time but only an inch or two that I could see. No shoveling before I left for work today. I thought it would be better to leave the ice on top of the snow so I wouldn't have to deal with a sheet of ice after the freezing rain started when I got home. I left about 25 minutes early thinking the roads were going to be a sheet of ice and it was going to take me a lot longer to get there. It turned out that the roads were not that bad at the time I left.

I hit the mountain around 3:30 after shoveling some of my driveway this afternoon. It was great to be running during the week in the light. Not a one person was on the trail today. I'm not sure if that ever happened before this late in the day. A lot of people take their dogs up to walk them I guess not today. There was a little coating of ice on top of the snow at the start but nothing to slippery. By this time the temps were above freezing and all you heard was the ice falling off of the trees. I ran right up to the red trail to work on my running and video making. I really enjoy making/sharing the videos because not everyone can make it out to see what it looks like after a storm. After running down that trail I knew my feet were going to be soaked and cold the rest of the run. The closer I got to the top the temps started to drop and the ice on top was getting thinker. There was a lot more ice that was still on the trees at the top and some fog. If you were never at the top of the mountain after an ice storm you don’t know what you are missing. It is a total different world up there. After getting some pics at Pulpit I ran the AT to the red trail and down the blue snapping some pics on the way . That is where my feet were really starting to feel the cold. I sat down to wring the water out of one of my socks on the foot that was very cold. It does help if you know your not going to be stepping in any more water for awhile. Finally I see two more sets of footprints as I was finishing the last half mile. I was glad someone else got to check what was left of the little ice storm. The sky started to break and the sun and moon were peeking through. What a cool ending to a run.

1-18-2011 - 8 miles - 1:45 - run

Day 48 - Monday Monday

No sun and a little bit of wind made for one of the coldest walking days of the year so far. Today my walk was cut short which I didn't care because I got to see my two little ones on my walk and it made the day go by real quick. It is amazing what a boost that can give you the rest of the day.

The legs felt sore today. I think it was from running in the snow over the weekend. It does take some time getting use to running in the snow. The feet/legs are always landing and slipping a different way. My legs did feel better after my walk and should be good to go after work.

My run tonight started around 6. Taking off at a nice pace I hit the first mile around a 7:30 pace. For the rest of the run I was trying to stay right around an 8 min. pace just by feel. I try only looking at my watch when it beeps every mile so I can learn to run that pace by feel. As of right now an 8 min. pace on the road around here feels very comfortable for 8 to 10 miles with not feeling like I am going too fast. I can’t do that every day but a couple times a week feels good.

It looks like some icy weather for tomorrow and should be interesting to see what happens. Below are a couple of pics from some cool ice runs I had a few years ago. Hopefully I can get some more shots of some ice after this storm.

Schuylkill River/Little Schuylkill run together in Port Clinton

Appalachian Trail on the Buzzard Course

Top of mountain on Buzzard Course

1-17-2011 - 2.4 miles - 33:55 - walk
1-17-2011 - 10 miles - 1:19:37 - run

Day 47 - Port Clinton Fire Tower

I got a text last night from my friend Dan asking if I ever thought about running up the road to the Port Clinton fire tower. I responded yes and it is a 5k up to the top. Not thinking he was serious about running it, but he was, that is where we ran today. He picked me up around 1 p.m. and we were on our way. I was planning on using this hill as a training hill but I never made it over to run on it. The hill climbs up for the first 1.4 miles then levels off the rest of the way to the fire tower. The road was plowed but at some spots the snow was a little tricky running through. After making it up to the fire tower we ran on on a nice trail that was a public snowmobile trail. That went down for over a mile until we hit the road. From there it is a quarter mile of black top to the trail.  The next trail runs along the Little Schuylkill River up to the Rat Trail. The Rat Trail runs along the middle of the mountain and was all flat single track. Once we were off of the Rat Trail we only had .30 mile back down to the car. The sun was out the whole run and no wind. Another great day with a friend on the trail.

Above is a pic at the start of the run

Port Clinton - Weiser Forest entrance

Port Clinton Fire Tower - Built in 1923

Crazy Trees

Little Schuylkill River

Trail along the Little Schuylkill River 

Dan running down the road to the finish

1-16-2011 - 10.30 miles - 2:01 - run

Day 46 - Sand Springs/Tom Lowe

The day started out by driving out to Shartlesville to run with about 15 Pagoda Pacers at 8:30 a.m. The course was a 5 mile loop. Starting on the Sand Springs trail and back the Tom Lowe trail. The Sand Spring trail already had footprints on which made the footing a little easier than blazing a new trail through the rocks. We passed three hunters today. Two of them had there wife or girlfriend with them. I thought that was pretty cool that they could share the experience with them even if it looked like they didn't want to be there. Once we hit the Tom Lowe trail it had some downhill and that is where the real fun started. The trail had only animal tracks on at the start and you could move along in the snow at a faster pace until we hit some of the steeper downhill rocky sections. Finishing just over 70 minutes another runner wanted to run a little extra and we headed back up a dirt road. He dropped me right away and I only added about an extra mile he went a little further. I said good by to everyone and headed back to Hamburg. The map of the loop we did today is below.



From there I drove right to the Hamburg Reservoir to get a couple more miles in. I would of ran more on the Sand Springs and Tom Lowe trails but with all the hunters I thought I should leave there since I made it out alive. I got my pack on and was getting ready to run when I looked over and there was my friend Al. We ran to the top of the mountain together and I went to get some pictures at Pulpit Rock and Al went to finish his run. After snapping a couple pics I jumped on the AT to the red trail, then down the blue trail and back to the parking lot. I ran into the hiker that yelled to me in the dark the other night after I was on the blue trail. He was out hiking with his dog again getting ready for his trip next month out to Yellowstone for some XC Skiing. Sounds like an awesome trip to do someday.

The view from Pulpit Rock

The view from Pulpit Rock

The view from Pulpit Rock

The view near the Appalachian Trail

The view near the Appalachian Trail

A side trail off the blue trail

A side trail off the blue trail

The wife and children went over to her parents to go sledding and for her dad's 70th birthday party. I decided to run over to get some more time on my feet and then go sledding. It was nice to open up the legs on the road after running in the snow earlier in the day. I was about a mile away from the sled hill and I could see little specks(sledders) in the field. I just made it there for the last sled run of the day. What a great way to finish the run by flying down the hill on a sled.

1-15-2011 - 6.25 miles - 1:12 - run
                    5 miles - 1:00 - run
                    8.2 miles - 1:06 - run