gimme, gimme summer runnin'.

What's the rush, summer?

Time ticks on and I'm still trying to determine whether June actually happened or we all just agreed to skip right to mid-July.  There's been a lot of work on my plate and even more on my mind.  I've been run, run, running as an offset and been blessed with healthy legs and motivated feet.

Here's the evidence.

Monday, June 27 - Ran home from work in my new Happy Father's Day kicks.  Nice.

Thursday, June 30 - Ran to work in my one-run-less-new Happy Father's Day kicks.  Still nice.

Sunday, July 3 - Early morning run at Pumping Station and the Horseshoe Trail.

Sunday, July 3 - Afternoon run on Elizabethtown, Penryn, Locust Grove and Newport Roads.

Monday, July 4 - Ephrata Firecracker 5 - forgot to stop the GPS in the finish chute - official time was 34:57.

Tuesday, July 5 - Lunch break loop through Manheim.

Wednesday, July 6 - Morning run at Pumping Station and State Game Lands with Jefferson and Chris.



Saturday, July 9 - Horseshoe Trail out-and-back from Pumping Station to Middle Creek clear cuts.

week ten.

Before this week gets away from me entirely, I'd better post my look back at last week.  I didn't make any leaps forward in terms of mileage but I am quite pleased with what I accomplished with the miles that I was able to log.

It was another good mix of road and trail, hills and flats, fair weather and foul.  Four of the five runs were an hour in duration or just shy.  I feel more and more strongly that these are the types of runs that I want to be logging over shorter, faster workouts.

A wicked amount of rain fell on Thursday which left everything (and I do mean just about everything) under water.  I'd thought initially of avoiding the trail until it had time to dry out but convinced myself that I was stupid for doing so.

It would've been.

I hit the trail on Friday at Pumping Station and it was fantastic.  I picked up some blisters because of it and have a toenail that is likely to fall away from the wet, slippery conditions that gave it a good battering, but all in a day's work, right?

The damage wasn't significant enough to keep me away the next morning and Jefferson and I put in work on trails that were still spongy and water-logged.  Jefferson headed off to other commitments after 3 miles and I gave Mole Hill a go.  I'd say more but have decided that said hill deserves a blog entry of its own and I intend to grant it that due in the coming days.  Suffice to say, I received my usual quad and lung-busting punishment.

On Saturday afternoon, I took Lindsay and the girls to see the snow geese at Middle Creek.  They're gone at this point, but as far as my companions were concerned, the tundra swans that are still hanging around were suitable replacements.  Most of the other tourists seemed convinced that they were viewing snow geese anyway, so all's well.  After leaving Middle Creek, we hit the Freeze 'n Frizz in Lititz for hard-earned ice cream.  My shoe fetish got the best of me and I ended up speaking at length with a stranger solely on the basis of his wearing Saucony Kinvaras.  I tend to avoid strangers like a well-schooled child, but I'm glad that the candy of running shoes tempted me into the conversation.  Jason had nothing but positive things to say about the shoes and ended up revealing himself as my doppelganger.

He'd played hoops all life longs and had the ruined ankles to prove it.  We were a year apart in school and probably shared basketball courts along the way in the small world that is Lancaster County.  A flatfooted pronater, Jason had received the same as advice as I had to pick up overbuilt shoes to try and correct for the deficiencies.  The subsequent aches and pains led to him nearly giving up on running before giving trail running a shot and going with more and more stripped down shoes as his mileage increased.  He'll attempt his first marathon next month and though he claims to have no interest in qualifying for Boston, I could tell that his mentioning it meant he hopes to prove himself wrong.  Good luck, Jason!

With the Boston conversation fresh on my mind, I pushed hard on Sunday's road run and covered 10 miles at a faster pace than I maybe ever have before.  If I could just manage to hold that pace for another 16.2 miles, I might just hit up Boston myself.  Some day.

Here's the stats:

Tuesday, March 8 - Pre-work run up Sun Hill, through town on 72, up Orchard Street and back home.

Wednesday, March 9 - Post-work out-and-back on Power Road, Sun Hill Road and Park Hill.

Friday, March 11 - Water-logged run at Pumping Station - decent pace in the conditions (deep water and mud) - picked up a toe blister and bashed/bruised a toe on my right foot.

Saturday, March 12 - Run up to Eagle Rock with Jefferson and then hit the wall on Mole Hill.

Sunday, March 13 - Smoking 10+ mile pace (for me) while battling wicked head winds.  Super stoked on this effort.

week five.

February has arrived and I'm still trying to find some consistency.  The legs feel great one day and less than good the next (though, thankfully "less than good" has yet to include pain or injuries).  I've been able to sneak in a fair few short runs but haven't strung together long runs.

Still, twenty+ mile weeks are helping to establish a good base for the year ahead.  Dealing with the strange footing of pock-marked ice and enduring the cold should pay dividends later.  Or so I hope.

Here's the recap (excluding two runs that I included in last week's totals):

Wednesday, February 2 - Ran a short, icy loop around Manheim Central HS on my lunch break.

Friday, February 4 - Short session of post-work hill repeats on Power Road.

Saturday, February 4 - Freezing rain and mixed terrain at Middle Creek - The trails demanded post-holing and the roads were treacherously coated in ice.

Sunday, February 6 - Microspikes were mandatory in the rutted, pocked ice at the R2T - Even so the footing was still ridiculous - I'd hoped to log more miles but the 7 I managed was work enough.

horseshoe daydreams.

The work week has begun and I'm on the road again.  Or, rather, I'm back to running back-and-forth to work on roads and sidewalks, wishing I was playing in the dirt.

Being there for the start of Lily's and Piper's day keeps the Horseshoe Trail just out of reach on most mornings.  A fair trade, for sure, but a good example of absence fostering a fonder heart.  As my feet pound the pavement on those runs to work, my mind stays busy replaying images of recent trail runs and conjuring images of those to come.

Images like these:

While this photograph doesn't offer much in the way of aesthetics, it marks the crossroads and parking lot from where any number of great off-road runs originate.  If you happen to see my car parked in this lot, you can be pretty certain that somewhere out in the woods beyond there's a smile on my face.

Last Saturday morning I followed an out-and-back section of trail that Jefferson turned me on to back in early Fall.  The last time we ran this section together, a heavy bed of leaves made it difficult to decipher if we were managing to remain on the winding and little used section of trail.  Running it in the snow without any sets of footprints put down ahead of me, I was questioning how I might manage to navigate.  Just as a I began to doubt that I was on the right path, a set of deer tracks appeared out of nowhere to confirm first that I hadn't strayed and then to escort me the rest of the way to the turnaround.

On a prior bulletin, I snapped a photo from Eagle Rock overlook, noting that due to the snow falling that day visibility was limited.  I paused at that same spot this past weekend and took another photograph and this time you can make out Blue Mountain off in the distance across the valley.  You can also make out, if you look closely, some frozen snot in my right nostril.

Snow and elevation change combined to my moving at a glacial pace.  On a day as beautiful as this day, who cares?  Not me.

This photo was taken from a high point on the Horseshoe Trail within Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area.  These sections of the trail, where it overlaps with old fire roads, are some of my least favorite on most days of the year.  Add snow, however, and it's a different story.  The photograph looks northeast and somewhere on the ridgeline visible between the gap in the trees is the small house in which I spent the latter half of my childhood.

Thinking about that happy home on Texter Mountain (let's be honest, a wooded hill) brings back a host of other images to ponder on tomorrow's run.

week two.

This was definitely a week of ups and downs, days without any running, days with multiple runs (love those twofers) and, thankfully, a couple of long runs (per the clock, if not the mileage) late in the week.  We got some snow in the middle of the week which made roadwork sketchy at best, especially when trying to sneak in runs after the sun had set.  It also made trail work taxing but extremely rewarding (translation: fun. really, really fun).  The overall pace was laughable this week but it doesn't matter.  Breaking trail, fighting headwinds and bearing fatigue slowed me down but didn't put a dent in my spirits or my satisfaction in getting out and moving, moving, moving.

Here's the week that was:

Tuesday, January 11 - mid-workday road loop.

Tuesday, January 11 - post-work loop starting in Manheim Square and including some snowy hill repeats.

Wednesday, January 12 - mid-workday loop in snow and unexpectedly punishing headwinds.



Wednesday, January 12 - ill-advised PM run in deteriorating conditions - glad just to get home NOT run over.



Saturday, January 15 -an overdue trail run on the 3 Peaks route of (and around) the Horseshoe Trail.

Sunday, January 16 - return to the Horseshoe, this time between Middle Creek and Segloch Road (and back).



snow business.

Two consecutive days of measurable (barely) snow lured me out to the Horseshoe Trail for a midday run on Saturday.  Admittedly, I'd have been headed that direction anyway but a couple of inches of snow made the prospect that much more inviting.

I even had a new pair of Patagonia Arrant Gore-Tex kicks to break in.

Another snow squall swirled as I pulled on my hat and zipped up my jacket.

I crossed over Hammer Creek and turned east on the Horseshoe Trail.  A few mountain bikes had clearly passed through earlier in the day, but otherwise there were no tracks to be seen.  Because of the snow, the footing was unusually forgiving but slippery and I didn't progress very quickly.  It was such a beautiful day, however, I couldn't have cared less.

A couple of right hand turns lead the Horseshoe to the top of the ridgeline before the trail bends back on itself and up to the overlook at Eagle Rock.

With snow continuing to fall over Lebanon Valley down below, visibility wasn't much more than a mile or two.  I couldn't make out Blue Mountain to the north where I'd head later that night with friends for a winter hike-in/camp out on the Appalachian Trail.  The short horizon didn't diminish the cold, crisp loveliness in the slightest.

I continued across the ridge top trail and began winding my way down, down, down towards Route 501 and Middle Creek Wildlife Management property beyond.  Wanting to watch my time and knowing that the snow base was impacting my pace, I decided to turn around at the bottom of the descent and climb back up the way I'd come.

On the way back up, I had a juvenile but motivating moment, passing another trail runner (I see few--as in almost none) on his way down the Horseshoe.  We were both grinning from ear to ear, offered brief words of encouragement without breaking stride and pulled off an instinctive, perfectly executed low five as we passed by each other.

My pace slowed further on the ascent back up to Eagle Rock but enjoyed every step.  Reaching level ground, my feet turned over more easily, my breathing stabilized and I pushed hard on the way back down towards Hammer Creek.  Instead of returning directly to the car, I hung a right and worked my way up the next ridge to the west, passing by the large rocks that lurk above the creek and then navigating back down the technical track that dumps back onto the lower portion of the Horseshoe Trail.  It had taken me over 53 minutes to cover a little more than 5 miles but I had a blast.

The Arrants proved heavy companions though I knew that would be the case at the outset.  The Gore-Tex lining kept my feet warm and dry, making up for carrying several ounces more per foot than I normally do.  They shed snow wonderfully and I suspect I'll turn to them on a few more occasions before winter is through, especially for running in snowshoes should we get some more significant snowfalls.

The beard, as usual, was not as successful in its attempts to shed snow.

As if I'd have it have it any other way.