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Bad Long Run

July 18, 2015 (Morning)

Exercise Type: Run

Comments:
I met up with Zac for our long run at Patriot's path near Lewis Morris Park. Supposedly this was a good running trail so I figured we would give it a try since it's not too far. This was a terrible idea. I'll give a breakdown of the run:

Miles 1-2: we start on the trail and it is very wet and muddy. The trail is extremely narrow and got very rocky and rooty, with a few short steep climbs. We hit 8:27 the first mile and decided this wasn't the place to get a good long run in so we left and got to the road by 1.5 miles. Up ahead on the road we see two black bears. We decide to run past and hope they don't attack us. They didn't. Splits: 8:27, 7:31

Miles 3-5: we turn into Lewis Morris park because that was where the majority of my high school meets were my freshmen year before they stopped holding races there. These miles were all on the roads by the entrance of the park. The entrance is a big hill up to the park. There were a few ways the road split so it took a while to find the entrance. Around 4 miles in Zac realized he had to get to work so we parted ways. I made it up the huge hill to the start of the course by exactly 5 miles. Splits: 6:51, 7:27, 7:10

Miles 6-8: I went straight into the freshman course at Lewis Morris Park that I used to run. It was weird being back for the first time after almost 7 years. The course has a steep uphill 100 meters in that lasts 200 meters like the one at the beginning of holmdel but steeper and rocky with bad footing. Then it looped around some fields next to Delbarton and went back into a trail for the second mile. This trail was rocky and rooty and the last half mile of the course went up a steep hill. I didn't remember the course being this tough and rocky. Now I see why they stopped running races there. I couldn't find the third mile where the varsity course runs since I only ever ran the freshmen course, so I left. Splits: 7:14, 7:07, 6:53

Miles 9-10: at this point I was exhausted so I just ran around the lake by the parking lot where my car was. It was relatively flat and almost all on dirt. I didn't feel strong enough to pick it up so I just hung on to finish up at an easy pace. My legs and lungs were burning. Splits: 7:01, 6:54

This is definitely one of the worst long runs I've had in a while. I guess if dropping from an 8:27 the first mile to a 6:54 the last counts as progression, then I got in a good progression run, but this wasn't what I was hoping for when I started. No worries I'll take it easy tomorrow and hopefully be fresh for a week of running in Virginia. Monday has a forecasted high of 100 degrees down there!