Rabbits
"Did you ever wake up with bullfrog's on your mind?" Anybody know the song (without googling) - all 16 minutes of it - from whence that lyric comes from?
Anyway, no bullfrogs this morning but rabbits. Rarely see rabbits on my run, this morning I saw four of them in different places. The first one, near the I-95 and 420 interchange, was running ahead of me for maybe 50 meters. But, Kenyan-like, it held me off without much apparent effort.
But, before that, let me back up. I did get in 4 miles in in a second workout yesterday after teaching class. 25 flat on a USP hamster wheel. Was supposed to do it in about 26 but I had places to go so I sped it up. No problem slicing off that minute, but its a lousy feeling when, after the workout, I go out into the dark and realize that it will still be dark when my next workout starts.
Sure enough, I started at 5:30 this morning in the dark and fog. 12 miles was on the agenda, at 7/7:30 pace. Now (primarily for the sake of GP) I'll say that, while this pace is appropriate for someone who races the times I do, I generally do off-day training runs at a more mellow pace. Just the way I am. One more of those quirks people will sometimes comment about to the effect of "Judging by your training runs its hard to believe you can run as fast as you do." My usual off-day pace is usually in the high 7s/low 8s, but this morning I made a conscious effort to up the pace a bit to conform with the instructions (kind of like what happens to me when I run with Deirdre). Its not really a big deal and it took me through the first 6 or so miles relatively effortlessly. . . up to when I hit the Tinicum refuge and the false dawn was rising.
But I don't know what I was thinking this morning. I was a bit worried that the paths through Tinicum would be muddy. But when I got there I saw that, hell, there was still a blanket of crusty snow on the paths. By this point, however, I was at a point of no return. So it was part skating, part breaking through the crust, and part trying to keep some kind of regular pace on a thin sheet of what Ian calls "creme brulee" snow. It takes alot of energy - picking feet up after breaking through the crust; losing traction on icy parts; running serpentine at times to get to the areas with the most traction; and once submerging my foot ankle deep into ice cold water that lay under some snow. This went on for four miles and my calves and hamstrings were hurting by the end. When I got back on to 420 it was a strange sensation, as I was going the same effort but suddenly alot faster. When this feeling wore off I did strides for the rest of the loop and then about 1.5 miles extra to get to 12.
It was again beautiful in Tinicum when bathed in the early morning light. In addition to rabbits, deer were all over the place, and some also ran in front of me, white tails and all - Ethiopians playing to the rabbits' Kenyans. I'm also making friends with a Red Tail Hawk that I've seen either perched or flying at about the same spot every morning I make it through Tinicum.
So a unique run with the odd conditions, conditions which slowed an initially brisk run down a bit. Tinicum loop split to 89:06, relatively slow for 10.5 or so miles, and the strides took the run to 12 miles in 99:24.
Anyway, no bullfrogs this morning but rabbits. Rarely see rabbits on my run, this morning I saw four of them in different places. The first one, near the I-95 and 420 interchange, was running ahead of me for maybe 50 meters. But, Kenyan-like, it held me off without much apparent effort.
But, before that, let me back up. I did get in 4 miles in in a second workout yesterday after teaching class. 25 flat on a USP hamster wheel. Was supposed to do it in about 26 but I had places to go so I sped it up. No problem slicing off that minute, but its a lousy feeling when, after the workout, I go out into the dark and realize that it will still be dark when my next workout starts.
Sure enough, I started at 5:30 this morning in the dark and fog. 12 miles was on the agenda, at 7/7:30 pace. Now (primarily for the sake of GP) I'll say that, while this pace is appropriate for someone who races the times I do, I generally do off-day training runs at a more mellow pace. Just the way I am. One more of those quirks people will sometimes comment about to the effect of "Judging by your training runs its hard to believe you can run as fast as you do." My usual off-day pace is usually in the high 7s/low 8s, but this morning I made a conscious effort to up the pace a bit to conform with the instructions (kind of like what happens to me when I run with Deirdre). Its not really a big deal and it took me through the first 6 or so miles relatively effortlessly. . . up to when I hit the Tinicum refuge and the false dawn was rising.
But I don't know what I was thinking this morning. I was a bit worried that the paths through Tinicum would be muddy. But when I got there I saw that, hell, there was still a blanket of crusty snow on the paths. By this point, however, I was at a point of no return. So it was part skating, part breaking through the crust, and part trying to keep some kind of regular pace on a thin sheet of what Ian calls "creme brulee" snow. It takes alot of energy - picking feet up after breaking through the crust; losing traction on icy parts; running serpentine at times to get to the areas with the most traction; and once submerging my foot ankle deep into ice cold water that lay under some snow. This went on for four miles and my calves and hamstrings were hurting by the end. When I got back on to 420 it was a strange sensation, as I was going the same effort but suddenly alot faster. When this feeling wore off I did strides for the rest of the loop and then about 1.5 miles extra to get to 12.
It was again beautiful in Tinicum when bathed in the early morning light. In addition to rabbits, deer were all over the place, and some also ran in front of me, white tails and all - Ethiopians playing to the rabbits' Kenyans. I'm also making friends with a Red Tail Hawk that I've seen either perched or flying at about the same spot every morning I make it through Tinicum.
So a unique run with the odd conditions, conditions which slowed an initially brisk run down a bit. Tinicum loop split to 89:06, relatively slow for 10.5 or so miles, and the strides took the run to 12 miles in 99:24.
posted by seebo | 11:47 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home