Short -Long -Short

I ran my first real "long run" of the year sandwiched between to very short runs this weekend.

On Friday evening Heather and I ran into the Wissahickon Park in the quickly fading daylight. At 5:30 it is still bright enough to run in the park but you better on your way out or your going to get caught in the dark. The time between sunup and sundown begins to quickly lengthen this time of year. Something to look forward to as you come out of the winter.

My new entrance to the park, Rex Avenue, is a 1/2 mile long hill that starts off paved and quickly deteriorates into a cobble of stones, roots and leaves. It makes for an easy trip into the park and burning thighs and calves on the way out. I like it. 4.6 miles in 40 minutes.

On Saturday I joined the Philly Runners group and specifically Seebo for a long run. Things started off a little faster than expected at 7:25 pace up MLK but it felt great and we had a good group moving along. At Falls Bridge Seebo, Ryan, and I broke from the pack and took a spin up the Blooddy Nipple to retrace the route through Fairmount Park that Seebo and I made a couple weeks back. It's great to run with Seebo but it was nice to add Ryan to the mix for a long run, the more the merrier. My legs felt tired by mile 8 but strangely they didn't get any worse the rest of the way.

Ryan and I split from Seebo in West Philly and continued back to the AM. 16 miles in 2 hr 4 min. I consider any run of 16 more miles an official long run so that made Saturday my first of the year and it definitely went well.

On Sunday I again pushed of my run off until the end of the day and this paid for it with much colder and windier weather. It was warm in the morning when I took the dog for a walk but windy and 30 degrees when Heather and I headed out for a loop in the Wissahickon around 4:30. It actually felt kind of nice and I was dressed appropriately so I didn't mind. A few easy miles on very hill trails. My legs had totally forgotten about the 16 miles the day before and felt fresh and eager to push the pace. That of course wouldn't have been wise but I had Heather there to keep me in check. 4.8 miles in 43 minutes.

For the week: 52 miles in 7 runs. I was somewhat surprised by the weekly total, I didn't feel like I had run much this week.