11/17/2014 to 11/23/2014

November 19, 2014

I did 4 miles at Upper Campus today. It was bitterly cold (22 degrees with windchill) and already getting dark when I set off. Still, it turned out to be an okay run, and as usual, I warmed up after the first few minutes. I started off on the loop around the soccer fields. This time I skipped Hospital Hill since there was a trail I wanted to check out before it got dark. And the end of the loop around the soccer fields, I headed off to the grassy XC trail. It wasn't dark yet and I could still see where I was going. That gradually began to change though. I kept imagining that I saw deer and other animals out of the corner of my eye, but they turned out to be nothing. I did eventually see a couple of real deer bounding in the field ahead of me near the end of the XC trail. When I got to the end of the XC trail, I turned left instead of straight or right, which is something I have only done a couple of times before. The terrain was worse than I thought it would be: there were tufts of knee-high grass everywhere and the trail was full of bumps and dips. I half-wondered if I was really running through a trail or just a field. Still, I pushed on, eager to explore a trail that I can see from Pennsylvania Route 487 (but have never explored) that I thought would connect to the trail I was on. I eventually got to a point where the "trail" dead-ended into a wall of forests and hedges and further progress downhill was impossible. I did spot another trail that headed east, but it soon arrived in what appeared to be someone's backyard. Out of options, I turned around and headed back to the main part of Upper Campus. The climb was pretty steep and wasn't made any easier by the terrain and the darkness. Once I got out of there, I went straight and followed the XC Trail until it looped around to its starting point and then returned to the main part of Upper Campus. By the time I got back to the soccer fields, I had almost hit 4 miles, so I ran a bit on the upper fields until I  reached the 4-mile point.

My total pace was 7:28/mile and my time was about 29:50. My splits were something like 7:08, 7:19, 8:22, and 7:02. The third mile was the one where I had to navigate the steep trail that was not really a trail, hence the slow pace. A few days later, I learned that that wasn't the trail that goes down to Pennsylvania Route 487.

November 20, 2014

4 miles at Upper Campus again, but on a slightly different course than last year. I thought the temperature would be milder than yesterday, but it wasn't and there was a furious wind. My mom (who was walking there with the dog) admonished me for wearing shorts in such cold weather. Still, I eventually warmed up. I started with the soccer fields, but did Hospital Hill this time. After doing the loop around the soccer fields, I headed off towards the XC trail. The sun had set, but there was still some light and I made it to the end with the trail without incident. I decided to loop back to the other trailhead like last time. At the beginning of this segment of the trail, there were three deer standing maybe ten yards away. Thankfully, none of them attacked me as I ran past. Indeed, they mostly ignored me. The going was slow as I headed back to the the trailhead. It was getting very dark and the trail was a bit uneven, so going was slow. I sped up a bit once I got to the power line right of way that led back to the main part of Upper Campus. It was pretty much completely dark by that point, although a dim orange post-sunset light still lingered on the western horizon. When I got back to the soccer fields, I still had three quarters of a mile remaining. I followed the loop around the soccer fields, heading a short distance down into the lower fields before taking a sharp turn onto a short trail that connected with the Hospital Hill trail. I ran on that for a few moments before returning to the upper soccer fields. I had a fast finish and reached the four mile point and stopped a couple of minutes later.

My shins hurt a bit on this run, but it was nothing too bad. Perhaps it was caused by running on the frozen ground, which was harder than normal. Anyway, the run was pretty fast. My total time was about 29:20 and my mile pace was 7:20. My mile splits were also extremely close together. Normally my fastest and slowest miles differ by 20 to 40 seconds, but this time they differed by three seconds. My first mile split was 7:20, my second was 7:21, my third was 7:18, and my fourth was 7:19. It was probably a pure coincidence; I doubt I could have kept such a consistent pace if I had been trying to.

November 21, 2014

Upper Campus in the bitter cold and dark again. I did 5 miles. This was the first grinder in weeks. I started out on the soccer fields before heading into the Mankiller trails (grass trails that are so-named by local runners due to their length and steepness), which is something I haven't done in weeks. When I got to the bottom of the hill, I continued straight instead of immediately turning right and heading up to the top. The offshoot wasn't as well-maintained as the main Mankiller trail, but it was runnable. In fact, I ran on that trail last winter, but I'm not sure if I went all the way. This time I did go all the way. The trail followed the
prepetually-closed-to-traffic part of Arbutus Park Road and turned north continuing to follow it. I was treated to views of a ravine beyond the road at points. Eventually, Arbutus Park Road veered away and my trail continued up the hill. I saw an even less maintained trail that headed off towards the Jessica S. Kozloff Apartments, but I didn't follow it. There wasn't enough light left. Instead I returned to the top of the Mankiller trails and from there back to the soccer fields. I then went over to the XC trails on the other side of campus. The going was slow here; it had gotten completely dark. When I got to the fields, I turned right instead of left and pretty quickly ended up at the end of the trail. I had nearly two miles left by the time I got back to the soccer fields again and couldn't think of anywhere interesting to run. I wandered randomly around the upper soccer fields for a while. It was pitch black except for a dim orange glow on the western horizon, which faded to dark purple by the time I hit 5 miles.

My time was 39:56 and my pace was 7:59/mile. The first mile was 7:42, which was okay. The second was 8:34. Presumably it was so slow because I was climbing up the Mankiller offshoot on the second mile. The third mile was 8:06, probably because it was dark and I was still running on trails. I sped up on the fourth and fifth miles: 7:53 and 7:37, respectively.

I'm kicking around carrying a flashlight on future runs at dusk, but I really look forward to when it gets warm and light again.

November 22, 2014

4.7 miles at the Myron Hopewell Memorial Park in the late afternoon. My dad and Mike Shepard also ran there at the same time, but we went at different paces and apparently on different courses, so we didn't see each other after the first half mile. This was an epic run. I went there with the dog three years ago and didn't have a great impression of it for some reason. But it rivals the nearby Stewardship Trails in terms of sheer awesomeness. From the parking lot, I headed out onto a trail called "Down and Dirty", which was broad, flat, and not particularly dirty. It wasn't long before I saw a narrower trail heading upwards. Being the adventurous sort of person that I am, I immediately turned onto the trail and check it out. This trail is called "Up and Out". There was some interesting terrain here: a lot of short but super-steep hills. It also curved
and snaked around a lot. At one point I came to a bridge marked "Danger". The bridge didn't look particularly dangerous, just slightly crooked, so I sallied forth and didn't fall into a pit of snakes or anything like that. Later on there was an unmarked bridge and after a bit less than three quarters of a mile, I arrived in an open field with great views of Danville. I was still doing a fast pace at that point, but that was about to change. I soon reentered the woods and began an arduous climb up the nearby ridge. I was now on a trail called "Junk in the Trunk", which is marked "Expert" on the map of the trails. I soon saw why. A 45-degree slope confronted me almost as soon as I entered the woods. I made it up that and the trail switchbacked for about a minute. Then I arrived at an even more difficult climb: a 60-degree (by my reckoning) slope that went up 20 meters. I didn't run that bit; I climbed it using my hands as much as my feet. I almost slipped a few times, but I did make it up. There were two more similar slopes after that, after which the trail reverted to conventional hills as it snaked around the north side of the ridge. Eventually, I got to the top of the ridge. Along the way, I pondered about the fact that there is apparently a bike race on these trails. There's no way in hell that I would dare to take my bike on more than the easiest 10 percent of that trail. I also noticed huge piles of half-buried trash as I climbed to the top of the ridge. It looked like a hundred people had passed by without cleaning up after themselves. There was less trash once I got to the top of the ridge and it was easier
going from there. I had planned to turn around at the 2.5 mile mark and I was getting close to it by that point. I hoped that I could get to the end of the trail before then. About a quarter of a mile before the 2.5 mile mark, I arrived in a clearing and the trail went in two ways. One way went straight and the other went down and to the left. I chose the left turn, which was an access road according to the map. I'd dispute the road part, but at least it was broad and grassy and not too steep. As I drew close to the 2.5 mile point, the end of the trail was not in site. Finally, right as I hit 2.5, I came around a bend and saw a real road about a hundred meters ahead. It was empty and desolate, but it was a road. It seemed like there was no one else within a mile of the place. But I had reached the end of the trail. Distance: 2.57 miles. I stopped momentarily to rejoice and then began heading back.

The climb back up the access road was slow and steep, but it was not that long. I returned to the Junk in the Trunk trail and began running back, meandering around the top of the ridge the same way I came. The light was beginning to go and I was a bit concerned about being out on such difficult and unfamiliar trails in the dark, especially since the trail was only a foot or two wide in places. Presently I arrived at the north side of the ridge again and began heading down. I started passing half-buried trash again, at one point seeing a toilet bowl sitting in the middle of the woods (seriously). Eventually I reached the first of the 45+ degree slopes. The light was really going by this point and the trail had a sharp turn beyond which was a steep cliff. My momentum would've carried me right over the cliff if I had run down that, so I sacrificed my dignity (no one was watching at least) and slid down the hill. The next slope was the toughest one (the 60-ish degree slope). There was no way I could've made it down it without slipping, so I left the path briefly and rejoined it at the bottom of the slope. I managed to run down the next two slopes and soon after that I was back in the fields. At this point, I was on the Up and Out path again, but I inadvertently diverged from the route I took on the way out (though I was still on the Up and Out trail). I ran through the fields before reentering the woods. It was almost completely dark by this point, but fortunately I only had about half a mile to go. It didn't take long for me to return to the Down and Dirty trail. Somehow I turned right even though the trailhead was just 50 feet to the left. It wasn't long before I realized my mistake and headed back to the parking lot. I wrapped up with a short distance on the field next to the parking lot.

My total time was 44:51 and my pace was 9:33/mile. My first mile was 8:36 and my second (the one with all the crazy slopes) was 10:21. Either my third or my fourth mile was 9:35 and I don't remember my time on the other mile. I look forward to coming back to this trail. I plan to do an epic run on Thanksgiving, so these trails might be a good place to do it.

Later I learned the explanation for all the trash: the course is on top of a former landfill. The views were superb though. The route was very convoluted and I don't know the trails, so instead of a map of my run, here's a map of the whole trail system:

November 23, 2014.

8.1 miles today. It's the longest I've run since late July. Perfect weather: 51 degrees; I ran in shorts and short sleeves. I did this run out at the Montour Preserve last week. This time I started at the visitors' center and ran up the road to the dam where the Chillisuagi Trail begins. I then headed out along the dam, going
counter-clockwise like last week. I managed to go around the worst of the goose droppings this time, although I did have to walk gingerly for about 20 feet. I then continued on my way, following the trail around Heron Cove and on to the pine plantations. The trail was kind of soggy and I kicked up a lot of dirt behind me. I turned onto the Ridgefield Point Loop around 2 miles in. That trail went down to the lake on a grassy trail before looping back towards the Chillisuagi Trail. Parts were strangely slushy and I got slightly muddy on this stretch. It largely stopped when I returned to the Chillisuagi Trail, where I went down a steep hill and up another steep hill before crossing Middle Branch Chillisquaque Creek. I then began heading back towards the dam and then down the road to the visitors' center. Then I did the little loop called the Wildlife Management Trail before heading across the road to the Goose Woods Trail and the Braille Trail. It was an interesting little trail. Parts of it had a woodchip surface, parts had a grass surface, and still other parts had a dirt surface. I ran alongside a mostly frozen pond for a while before the trail went into the woods. It crossed Middle Branch Chillisquaque Creek a couple of times before turning back and heading along the other side of the pond. When I got back to the road I crossed it and followed a short continuation of the Goose Woods Trail over to the parking lot. I still had a ways to go, so I crossed the parking lot and did the short Hummingbird Trail. En route I noticed a grassy offshoot and followed it. It pretty quickly spit me out on a trail right below the dam. I headed back to the road and down to the visitors' center. Here, I decided to finish up with one final loop on the Wildlife Management Trail. I was beginning to fade by this point and it was still slushy, but I managed to have a fast finish. I stopped near the trailhead.

For once, I actually remember all my stats. My time was 1:00:16 and my pace was 7:26/mile. Strangely that was 11 seconds per mile faster than last week though I didn't feel as strong. My mile splits were 7:18, 7:24, 7:41, 7:27, 7:27, 7:19, 7:42, and 7:13. (I don't know exactly what pace I did the last one tenth of a mile at)

11/10/2014 to 11/16/2014

November 10, 2014

I ran 3 miles at Upper Campus on November 10, two days before I started working on this blog. You can read about that on the November 10 entry here.

November 11, 2014

Did 5.5 miles at the J. Manley Robbins Trail today, though I had initially planned on just 5. I started at Hess Field  trailhead and headed northwards, then crossed the bridge over Mahoning Creek and turned south, still following the trail. Around mile 1.7, it dumped me onto a road. I crossed another bridge over Mahoning Creek and soon after reached the access road to Hess Field. I was a bit worried about how my shins would hold up--I can't go too far on pavement before they start to hurt (thanks to the shin splits last May). Luckily, I pretty quickly got to a little side trail that I had discovered on Sunday and planned to explore. The trail went down the Mahoning Creek floodplain. I happened upon some kind of hut-like structure (perhaps it was for observing wildlife?). Two deer were lurking under the hut and jumped out, startling me. I continued on my way, heading northwards through a flat, lightly forested, slightly swampy area. The trail was mostly dirt/grass, but there were several short boardwalks too. After a few minutes, I ended up in a clearing where some power lines went through. There was a path (as there sometimes are in power line clearings), so I followed it briefly before ending up on the bank of Mahoning Creek. I stopped to gaze at the scenery for a few moments. The Robbins Trail was visible on the ridge across the creek. My mom was walking the dog up on that trail and apparently she noticed me, though I didn't see her. I continued following the forested/swampy trail. As I was running along, I was struck by the prehistoric feel of the area. Except for the trail, a few clearings, and the ever-present drone of Pennsylvania Route 54 a couple hundred yards away, there was no sign of civilization. The blend of forest and swamp was beautiful too. I soon came to a part of the trail
that closely parallels the creek (I had run in this segment of the trail recently and the Robbins 5K and 10K traverses it too). It took me back to the Robbins Trail a little bit before mile 4. I followed the Robbins trail just as I had done on the first loop. As I approached the 5 mile mark, I knew it was going to be a bit more than 5, so I just decided to do 5.5. It was 5.3 when I reached the Hess Field trailhead, so I turned around and ran for a minute on the access road before switching over to a trail, where the run ended.

It was a fairly fast run (sub-8s, which seems to be a norm these days). Total time was 43:00 and the pace was 7:49s. My mile splits were 7:55, 7:40, 7:50, 8:17, and 7:27, respectively. The last half mile was somewhere in the neighborhood of a 7:30 pace, but I don't remember the exact time. For some reason, it was a bit harder than usual to keep that pace, but it wasn't
too bad.

I later learned that the trail I was running an was the Mahoning Flats Natural Trail. I added it to Google Maps.

November 13, 2014

I did a fairly typical run: 4.5 miles at Upper Campus as darkness fell. It was bitterly cold, but not as bad as Friday will be, so I decided to run. A light snow was falling and I had to squint at times, but none of it accumulated. I did the Hospital Hill loop and then headed off towards the XC trails on the eastern side of Upper Campus. The trail first goes along some power lines and then cuts through the woods before depositing one in a field. However, this time I decided to keep following the power line path and see where it led. I remember that I did something like this some time in 2013 and wasn't impressed, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try again. I didn't go far, but the trail did continue and I resolved to return in broad daylight.
It wasn't that bad, although it was a bit tricky since it was slippery from the snow, uneven, and dark had almost fallen. After that little detour, I returned to the main XC trail and followed it on a rolling loop around some sort of grassy field. I startled a couple of deer on the way--that always seems to happen on nightly runs. At times, the only sign of civilization was a single light in the distance. When I got out of the XC trail, I decided to head over to the track. The football team was practicing on the field inside the track and the floodlights were on. The falling snow became illuminated as it fell in front of them. The result was illuminated clouds of millions of snowflakes. It had a surreal look to it, but it didn't hold a candle to the time I ran through fog a week ago. The track turned out not to be good for my shins, so I only did two laps there before running under the stadium and returning to the field where I started. There wasn't much distance left by that
point, so I just ran back and forth in the field.

The total time was 34:48 and the total pace was 7:44 per mile. The first two mile splits were 7:52 and 7:59. I don't remember the third mile split, but I did the fourth mile in 7:16. I don't know what I did on the last half mile, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was slightly slower than the fourth mile.

November 15, 2014

5 miles at Upper Campus. This time I went in broad daylight, shortly before noon. Due to this, I was able to check out a couple of the trails that I had planned to check out last time. There was snow in patches here and there, but I doubt there was enough for even a few snowballs. It was one of those runs where I felt slow and clunky, but my Garmin told me that I was going like greased lightning. I started out doing the typical stuff, Out on the soccer fields with a detour to do Hospital Hill. Then I went onto the grassy XC trail and followed the power lines. The power lines veered away from the trail at this point and the trail continued on, with a small field to the left and a little stretch of forest to the right. The trail wasn't very well-maintained, but it wasn't too bad. Just a bit uneven with some tall grasses here and there. I soon left the woods behind and began running in an open field. The trail became grassier still, but it remained runnable. It followed the outer edge of the field about 20 feet from Arbutus Park Road for a few minutes. Eventually, the trail seemed to end near Arbutus Park Road, but after stopping and looking around for a moment, I spotted it heading back towards Upper Campus. I followed the trail and the terrain quickly became better as I approached the main XC trail. A while later, I got to a parking lot at the edge of the XC trail. Rather than go through the parking lot and directly over to the soccer fields, I continued on the XC trail, which looped back to the power
line shaft. I eventually got back to the soccer fields and did one loop around them plus Hospital Hill. The last couple of miles were fast and there are still a few more trails I plan to explore at some point, including one that goes all the way down to Pennsylvania Route 487.

My time on this one was 37:26, which equates to a 7:28 mile. The splits were 7:27, 7:38, 7:40, 7:18, and 7:18. One of my three or four fastest runs since I returned to running a month ago. And I felt slow....

November 16, 2014

Today was a long run day: 7.3 miles at the Montour Preserve. It was a run that I had been looking forward to for days. I visited the preserve almost nine years ago and have been back several times since to hunt for fossils in the Fossil Pit, but I've never run there. There's a wealth of trails that are technically hiking trails, but are much better for running than hiking. Upon getting to the Montour Preserve at about 3:30 P.M., I headed counterclockwise along the 4.25 mile long Chillisuagi Trail (one of the most awesome trail names I've seen, by the way). It starts out along the 54-foot-high Chillisquaque Dam, with vistas of Lake Chillisquaque on one side and Montour Preserve lands on the other. On the other side of the dam, the trail turned north and closely followed the lake. At one point, it briefly followed the actual shoreline, with the water just a couple of steps away. The trail then cut across a stretch of grass and veered away from the lake a bit. A problem: that stretch of grass was covered in goose droppings, perhaps one per square foot or more. I slowly and carefully walked that stretch for obvious reasons and resumed running on the other side. The trail couldn't decide whether it was a packed gravel trail or a dirt trail and kept switching between the two every few tenths of a mile. The Chillisuagi Trail shared the path with a trail called the Planet Walk, which as one might imagine had informational plaques on the planets of the Solar System spaced along it. It occurred to me that the plaques weren't evenly spaced, but I thought little of it. I saw a couple of trails that warrant further exploration in the future and a few minutes later rounded Heron Cove and started heading west. Half a mile after the end of the Planet Walk, it suddenly occured to me why the plaques weren't evenly spaced: they were showing the scale of the Solar System. Meanwhile, I continued east, with periodic views of Lake Chillisquaque through the shrubbery. Presently I came to an offshoot called the Ridgefield Point Loop. I had agreed to meet my mom at the end of the Chillisuagi Trail half an hour after I started, but I figured it couldn't hurt to check out the trail, especially since it was only three quarters of a mile long. Checking out that trail proved to be a smart move--it was a very nice trail, mostly on dirt. I've never really admired the ground while running, but on this trail the gray rocks, brown pine needles, and very green grass contrasted well. The trail wound through the woods before going through a clearing right next to the lake. I stopped momentarily to take in the view, then continued. The trail began to curve northwards again, but suddenly forked. The trail wasn't blazed, so this was a bit confusing. I picked the right fork, which seemed to lead back to where I entered the Ridgefield Point Trail. The fork ended after thirty seconds. Go figure. Some more time passed and I began to wonder if I had made some mistake. Eventually, the trail merged with the packed gravel Chillisuagi Trail and continued north, presently crossing Middle Branch Chillisquaque Creek (the main tributary of Lake Chillisquaque). After that crossing, the trail began to go through a mix woods and fields instead of just woods. It turned south, heading back towards the starting point. I now saw glimpses of a road as well as the forests and fields and I also saw a few more offshoots, though some were marked with 'Posted' and 'No Tresspassing' signs. So many nice-looking trails are marked with those signs around here.... Around mile 4, I began feeling something strange in my shoe. Sometimes, rocks and stuff do get in there, so I stopped, took off my shoe, and felt around inside. There was nothing. It occurred to me to check inside my sock. Two of my toes were covered in dried blood; I suppose my toenail must've scraped against one of my other toes. It wasn't bleeding or even hurting anymore, so I put my sock and shoe back on and continued. I got to the end of the Chillisuagi Trail about an uneventful half a mile later.

At this point, all of the offshoots were too far away to explore at that point, so I ran down the road to the visitor center, where I had seen a trail on Google Maps. It turned out to be a loop called the Wildlife Management Trail and it wasn't unlike the Chillisquaque Trail: woods, fields, gently rolling hills. I saw a pond at one point and at another point, the trail became wilder, with rocks and roots, and wound through a dark grove of evergreens before suddenly becoming a grass trail in a meadow. I saw a herd of deer as well and also noticed some strange posts with numbers carved in them. They looked like distance markers, but weren't evenly spaced. Unlike with the Planet Walk, I didn't figure out their significance. Near the end of the loop, I saw what looked like an interesting offshoot, but it didn't even go half a minute before dead-ending near a pond. Oh well. I did the loop a second time and then headed up the road towards the starting point. I then turned onto a trail at the base of the dam and ran to the other side of it before heading up a somewhat tricky climb to the top of the dam. Here, I turned around and ran back along the top of the dam. It was an inspiring straightaway and a nice way to wrap up a run. I still had a couple hundred feet left to go, so I ran across the parking lot to finish up.

I was surprised about the hills on this run. I had thought that it was mostly flat, but the northern side of the trail has some rolling hills and a couple of steep (but short) ones. It seems that I am getting progressively faster. On this run, my pace was 7:37/mile and the time was 55 minutes and change (I'm ashamed to say I don't remember my exact time and I can't figure out how to upload data from my Garmin onto my computer). The first and seventh and possibly the fifth (again, I don't remember for sure) miles were at 7:19. The second, third, and fourth miles were at a 7:40 to 7:55 pace. The sixth mile was the slowest: 8:01. Maybe I was getting tired. So far my return to running seems to be successful. This was my first week at 25 miles per week (I was doing 40+ back in the spring, before the shin splints) and my shins haven't been giving my too much trouble.