12/8/2014 to 12/15/2014

December 9, 2014

 I was going to the rec center to play racquetball and they have an indoor track there, so I did a short run. Just one mile, which is eight laps around the track. Pretty much as soon as I started, my shins decided that they didn't like the hard surface. After two or three laps, I picked up the pace and the pain went away. I kept picking up the pace and by the fifth or sixth lap, I was practically sprinting. On the sixth lap, I decided to shoot for sub-6s. I finished with a flat-out sprint, but I still barely missed sub-6s. My time was 6:04. I could've easily broken 6 had I been going hard from the start. The turns also slowed me down some. Curiously, my Garmin only recorded the distance as half a mile, presumably due to all the turns. It must think I'm terribly slow.

December 12, 2014

 This is my first time running after I pulled my shoulder the other day. I did 4 miles on Upper Campus, starting just after sunset and finishing just after dark. There were a couple of inches of snow on the ground. The weather was cold, but not bitterly so. As always, I started out on the soccer fields, doing Hospital Hill on the way. I then went over to a little trail at the top of the hill where the Mankiller trails are. When I got to the end of that, I saw what appeared to be tire tracks in the snow on the trails. Curious, I decided to follow them. They ended up going into the Westernmost Trails and then diverging in several directions. I followed the main trail south and then west before leaving the tracks to follow the middle trail. I did that partly because I've only been there once or twice before and partly because there is a fallen tree on the western trail.
When I got back to the main trail, I heard a curious loud noise, like an engine or something. At one point I caught a glimpse of a car on one of the trails and saw some people cutting down a few trees. I suppose that explains the tire tracks. I returned to the soccer fields, where my Garmin's battery died. I hate it when that happens. I continued on to the XC trail on the other side of Upper Campus, where I did the main loop as darkness fell. It was dark by the time I reached the parking lot, so I just headed from there over to the soccer fields, where I finished with a quick loop around the upper fields.

I was doing about 8:20s before my Garmin battery died.

December 13, 2014

I ran twice today. Both times it was 3 miles on Upper Campus (actually 3.1 in the case of the first run).

The first run was before lunch. I did the Hospital Hill loop and the loop around the soccer fields (yawn) and then headed off to the XC trails. I briefly explored a dirt trail going off towards Arbutus Park Road, but stopped when I got too close to someone's yard. I then returned to the XC trail. About a quarter of the way though, I was cornered by a boisterous and rambunctious trio of loose dogs, one of whom drooled on my running shorts. They merrily danced around, crashing into each other in their excitement as they tried to get my attention. I managed to get past two of them eventually, but the third followed me for a good quarter
of a mile, cutting in front of me every few seconds. I couldn't decide whether to be annoyed or amused. Eventually the third dog stopped following me, leaving me on my own. I followed the trail to the parking lot and from there followed the road to the soccer fields, where I stopped.

The second run was in the afternoon. I did you-know-what and then headed down the Mankiller trail and went through a gap in some bushes and onto a closed section of Arbutus Park Road. It's semi-paved (I'm guessing it was paved twenty years ago, but was never maintained), gated at both ends, and goes through the woods by a ravine. It's also rather steep. Going up the road/trail on the edge of the ravine, I managed to startle a large group of either turkeys or turkey vultures. The rest of the climb up behind the student apartments and to the tennis courts was uneventful. There was a bit more remaining pavement than I remembered, but it wasn't painful. As I ran up the really steep (paved) road towards the tennis courts, the even steeper, grassy hill behind the tennis courts caught my eye. I ran over to it. It was partly covered in snow and I guess some people had been sledding there. From the bottom of the hill, I sprinted up, periodically almost losing my balance in the snow. I ended up going down and then sprinting up a couple more times. A spontaneous hill workout. I made it up the third time in 16 seconds. Then I looped around the tennis courts to the soccer fields and sprinted straight across them. There is a steep little hill with a knee-deep snowdrift at the edge of one of the fields and I wondered if I would go through it if I didn't turn. I hit 3 miles a few feet before the snowdrift, but my momentum carried me into it. An interesting way to end a run. If I remember correctly, my pace was 8:18/mile. No doubt it was slowed down somewhat by the hill repeats.

December 14, 2014

I did 5 miles on the Susquehanna Warrior Trail in the afternoon. I started from the Susquehanna Riverlands trailhead and headed north. Pretty much from the start, I was going fast. Eventually I left the Susquehanna Riverlands behind and the scenery turned from moderately pretty to rather ugly as the trail got gradually closer to US Route 11. I continued on and after about a mile and a half, I came to a spot where all sources claim that the trail ends. But it didn't end. It kept going right next to US Route 11. I continued on. The ground was mossy and slippery in this leg of the trail, but that didn't affect my pace. Just over two miles in, I happened to glimpse a parking lot for State Game Lands Number 260 across the highway. I stopped to have a look, but I couldn't see any roads or trails. I continued north on the Susquehanna Warrior Trail. The trail veered a few yards away from Route 11 and got slightly less ugly, so I continued a quarter of a mile past 2.5. I was pretty close to Shickshinny (the Shickshinny-Mocanaqua Bridge was less than half a mile away). I toyed with the idea of running all the way to Shickshinny, but I had planned to be back within 40 minutes, so I turned around after some deliberation. The run back was even faster than the run out and I didn't notice much scenery or really think about much of anything except the pace. I did the last half mile at a near-sprint.

My time was 37:08 and my pace was 6:45/mile. Not much slower than the pace I usually race such distances, but it was completely unplanned. My splits were 6:55, 6:49, 6:43, 6:41, and 6:47. The last half mile was at a 6:26 pace.