2/2/2015 to 2/8/2015

 I have had nothing worth saying the past few weeks. Mostly the runs have been slow slogs in the snow at the Fields of Boredom (aka Upper Campus). This past week, I did have a few things worth blogging about though.

February 4, 2015.
3 miles on Papermill Road at a very good clip right before dark. It's been a while since I've run there. It's an unpaved road southwest of the CDP of Lightstreet. The road was covered in snow, but only an inch or two of it, so the footing was fine until it got truly dark (as in, pitch black). I ran a mile out on that, turned around and came back. After that, I went back up the hill to the edge of the woods on Papermill Road and turned around. I only came close to slipping once. I must've had a lot of spare energy after practically not running for a week, because my time was in the 21:20s and my pace was 7:08/mile. My splits were all between 7:07 and 7:09.

February 5, 2015.
5 miles on some unpaved roads west of Orangeville. There's too much snow on the trails to do any serious running there. I started at the southern end of Lick Run Road and followed that to its end, a bit over a mile away. It climbed gently through the woods with Deerlick Run flowing in the valley below. It was slippery. At the end of the road I turned back and began descending. I slipped at mile 1.8, but there was no serious damage. On the way back, I made a long detour on Crouse
Hollow Road, which was a lot like Lick Run Road. My pace was 7:40/mile.

February 6, 2015.
I had wanted to explore some unpaved roads near Rohrsburg, but there was nowhere to park, so I ended up doing two miles on Upper Campus. I did the first mile on the fields, but that was completely pointless. Not only was there nearly a foot of snow, but there was a hard crust with soft snow under it, making serious running almost impossible. I did the second mile on roads, but did end it with a short sprint (i.e. moving slightly faster than walking pace) in the snow.

February 7, 2015.
4 miles on an unusual course. I started on the Robbins Trail, from the trailhead in Danville. I had been concerned that the snow would be too deep to do any serious running on trails, but it seemed to have been tamped down by passers-by for most of the way. It was still annoyingly slippery and uneven. I stopped for a little bit at the bridge over the frozen Mahoning Creek and then continued up the spur that parallels Mauses Creek. At the end of the spur, I crossed Pennsylvania Route 642 instead of turning around. The westbound section of the highway looked attractive. Too bad it was a state highway. Instead, I passed through Mausdale and followed Old Valley School Road almost all the way to Pennsylvania Route 54 and then returned. Back in Mausdale, I followed an interesting-looking side street called Kindt Road, but it pretty quickly dead-ended into Pennsylvania Route 642. Out of interesting options, I retraced my steps back to the Robbins Trail. I did the last mile as a fast clip, although I kept losing my balance in the snow.

February 8, 2015.
A 10K in Pennsylvania State Game Lands #58 this morning. The whole family (including the dog) drove out there, but I was the only one running. I set off along a gravel road running through the State Game Lands up Catawissa Mountain. It was a fairly steep road that climbed 90 percent of the way up there. In the first half mile, there were houses here and therer. After that, the road became more of a trail and fully entered the State Game Lands. After that, I spent the next 2.5 miles going progressively deeper into nowhere. There was a thin layer of ice on the "road", which would've made the going slow even if it has been thought. With the unending hill, my pace was well over 9:00s. I passed several snow-covered parking lots and once thought I heard a motor in the distance, but other than that, I encountered no signs of civilization for most of the way. However, at mile 3, near the top of the mountain, I encountered three radio towers. The view wasn't much, but I stopped there for two or three minutes before heading back down the mountain. The descend was faster, but more slippery. Where the climb up was a test of raw power and endurance, the climb down was a test of balance and maneuverability. I actually did manage to make it down the mountain without falling (unlike on Thursday's run) and returned to civilization. At the edge of civilization, I was confronted by two dogs, but they turned out to have more bark than bite. Once I was past them, it was a straight shot down to the starting point. Since there wasn't any ice there, I did about 6:00s on the last quarter mile.

My time was 55:17, about eight or so minutes slower than I would've done with flat ground and no ice. My pace was 8:54/mile overall and my splits were 8:53, 10:09,
9:32, 8:48, 8:48, and 7:52.

1/12/2015 to 1/18/2015

January 12, 2015

3 miles at Upper Campus in late afternoon. I did the first mile with Karl. We immediately set off at a lightning-fast pace, which we kept up around the Hospital Hill loop. He handled himself possibly even better than I did on the icy descent, possibly due to his having twice as many legs. Cheater. The rulebook doesn't say that you can use four legs. By the time we got to the straightaway that comes after Hospital Hill, he was dragging and his tongue hung about half a foot out of his mouth. He sped up to a full sprint as soon as he rounded the row of flags at the far end of the field and saw his goddess (my mom) walking towards us. I handed over the dog at that point and did two more miles.

January 15, 2015

4.4 miles on Upper Campus. The first two were with Karl.

January 16, 2015

Two miles on Upper Campus. I started the usual way, then went down the Mankiller trail and back up. I rendezvoused with my mom at the top of the hill and tried to take the dog for the last half mile, but he refused to leave her behind, so I handed the dog back and took off alone again. Total time: 15:40. Total pace: 7:50. Both miles were in the 7:46-7:50 range, but I did the last tenth of a mile at a sprint (roughly a 5:40/mile pace).

January 17, 2015

3 miles at Upper Campus in the morning. I ran alone and slowly, doing one extended hospital loop and one regular one. My time was 23:45 and my pace was 7:54/mile.

3.2 miles at Briar Creek Lake Park in the late afternoon. Last time (link to other post) I said that I would go back there for a short run if Upper Campus ever had me bored senseless. Both criteria were met, so I headed over there. Last time, the place was like a bog, but this time the lake was frozen over (apparently pretty thickly; some people were messing around out on the ice in the middle of the lake) and even the trail was iced over in places. I headed along the south side of the lake, at one point going out a few yards onto the ice to see how solid it was (it was very solid). I then ran up along the dike and then let my momentum carry me down it. I then looped around the fields, through the Fowlersville Covered Bridge, and back to the lake. I did a smaller loop that involved sprinting up the dike and then returned to my starting point at the western end of the lake. My pace was about 7:55/mile, maybe a bit slower.

January 18, 2015

10 miles at Weiser. I checked out one of the side trails. It was a dissapointment, but there are other trails, like the South Branch Trail. The last seven miles were all between 7:24 and 7:45. My overall time was 1:22:50 and my pace was 8:17/mile.

1/5/2015 to 1/11/2015

January 6, 2015

Three miles at Upper Campus. This week is the coldest week this winter. It's so bitterly cold that I'm only doing twenty miles instead of the usual twenty-five. I have a blister on one toe and there are a couple of inches of snow on the ground, so I took this one slowly. I did two loops around the fields and Hospital Hill and then one loop around the upper fields. I did the last tenth of a mile or so at a sprint. Total pace: 8:16/mile.

January 8, 2015

Four miles at Upper Campus. Somehow, it was even colder than last time. Around the fields and Hospital Hill, then around the eartern loop, and back. Then once around the soccer fields. My splits hovered around 8:00s except for the last mile, which was 7:15. The total pace was in the 7:50s.

January 9, 2015

Still bitterly cold. Another four miles at Upper Campus. Pretty much the same course as yesterday, but after three miles, I took the dog with me for the last mile. The first three miles were slow. The last one wasn't. Once we get going, he was a good running partner, just like the last time I ran with him. For a while, he was bouncing and galloping haphazardly, apparently excited to be running. He settled down after a quarter of a mile, but once we reached the far side of the fields and turned around towards the car, he darted ahead, almost pulling my arm off. It was all I could do to keep up. The last mile was spectacularly fast for a training run.

My time was 31:15 and my pace was 7:49/mile. My first three miles were 7:53, 8:07, 8:12, and 6:59. That dog is energetic.

The dog in a state of repose. For those who don't know, his name is Karl.

January 10, 2015

2x2 miles on Upper Campus. This is the coldest day so far this winter. The first time I ran, around 11 in the morning, it was around 1 Fahrenheit counting the windchill, making it probably the coldest weather I've ever run in. I was heavily bundled up. The run took me around two loops around the fields and no Hospital Hill loops. One the first lap, I was blasted by a bone-chillingly cold wind on the way out. That part of the loop was also in the shade. Then I headed out into the sun as I followed the loop back to its starting point. The wind all but vanished and it felt about twenty or thirty degrees warmer. I was seriously considering taking removing a layer. It was almost warm. Then it got bitterly cold on the first half of the second loop, only to warm up again on the second half of the loop. My first mile was in the 7:40s and my second was in the 7:30s, but I don't remember the exact time or pace.

The second run was in the late afternoon. I went directly over to the fields in the east at a slow pace. Shortly after entering the loop, I looked at the fairly wide view of the area. Across the field, I spotted three dogs heading towards me along the trail. They were about four hundred feet away as the crow flies and about four times that via the trail. I didn't want to be held up by them this time, so I presently slipped onto a side trail that follows the main trail. About fifty feet of hedges separate the two trails and I evaded them with no problem. I did eventually run into them on the access trail that follows the powerlines, and was held up there for a minute or so. Once I got going again, my Garmin died, so I don't know my pace. I finished at the parking lot near the soccer fields. My first mile was 8:18. The second was probably faster, but I don't know if I cracked 8:00s.

January 11, 2015

5.1-ish miles at the Robbins Trail. Temperature in the 30s. Compared to yesterday, it was almost warm, but it was damp and dreary. For some reason, I took a shortcut through the bicycle skill park to the trail and then headed out on it in the direction I usually go. At the bridge, I saw that Mahoning Creek was iced over. Being me, I stopped to throw a few small rocks at the ice to try to break it. It didn't break and the rocks just skittered and bounced over the ice. That ice must be indestructable. I followed the trail around the the Mahoning Flats Natural Trail and followed that along its full length to the main trail, then along the spur that parallels Mauses Creek, then back to the natural trail, to the powerline access trail, and back to the parking lot. I ended the run with a sprint in Hess Field. My Garmin died just over 4 miles in, but my pace was just under 8:00s at that point.

No map this time since it's late.

Busy

I'm busy with real life now that the winter break is over. I'll skip this week, but there will be a post next week.