February 22nd: Plan B for 16 Miles

I really wanted to do my run outdoors today. I'm so sick of the dreadmill.

So, despite a warning from a Monmouth County Park representative, I drove down to Thompson Park in Lincroft. I figured I'd check it out, and if the trail looked passable, I'd do it, and if not, I could always retreat to Planet Fatness.

What are they going to do in a week during the race?

Well, it wasn't passable. But I saw a lot of other runners out there, and they were finding places to go, so I thought why not give it a go anyway?

I'm noticing that a prevailing theme for my outdoor runs is that the increasing mileage is turning them into adventures, and that was certainly the case today. I followed the roads around the park for a bit, which got me a couple of miles. Then I headed out onto Newman Springs Road, which has a nice shoulder. As long as you run against the flow of traffic, it's perfectly safe.

...Pray for Us

The scene of a few crimes

After a little out-and-back, I turned left into CBA. It's the first time I've been on the grounds basically since Andrew Jr. graduated and then I had my 20-year reunion in the span of a couple of weeks in 2011. Ran out to the old Brothers' home and back. Oddly, for me, it doesn't really spur that sense of nostalgia that I think a lot of my classmates feel. I don't have anything against my time there, and I'm proud to be the middle link in the first (and to my knowledge, still only) three-generation family of CBA men. But I don't feel the need to go see my old locker or the gym or whatever.

See you in a week!

From there, I headed back east on Newman Springs and looped through the Brookdale Community College campus. That's where I'll be next week, weather permitting, at the start and finish of the half-marathon. There are a lot of good roads for running through there, and I even encountered a small set of stairs -- which, I have to tell you, actually feels good when you're seven miles into a run. You stretch other muscles and take some of the pressure off of the ones you've been using to run.

After that, it was back to the car for a quick pit stop (including a port-a-john stop). Then a repeated a lot of my route, looping around parking lots to add some easy distance into the trip. The second time through CBA, the cross-country team was being put through the paces by Coach Heath. CBA's cross-country program is -- and I'm not exaggerating even a little here -- the best high school program in the history of the sport. They haven't lost a dual meet in something like 40 years, and at the most recent Shore Conference championships, they took five of the Top 7 spots. The winner set a course record. But what struck me this morning was that the young men were cordial to me, asking how I was doing as we ran past each other. It's nice to see good manners like that.

As I left CBA for the second time, I hit 12 miles, and I started to hit the wall a little bit. By 13.1, I was pretty much just hanging on. My splits got seriously slower for that last 5k -- probably about 30 seconds a mile. But like last week, I willed myself through it. I really believe that's where you make your big gains. I needed one more loop in Thompson to get to 16 miles, and I hit it maybe 20 yards short of my car. Woooooo!!! 2:30:53. Not a bad pace, if the GPS is to be believed.

My recovery this week has also been a lot better than last week. No feeling like I'm going to crash, and I'm not dead on my feet now. Plus, by knocking it out on Saturday, I get two recovery days (cross tomorrow and rest Monday), so the rest of the week should be better, too. And I get two rest days at the end of the week, before the half-marathon on Sunday. I am looking forward to that, for sure!

One of the reasons I think it went as well as it did is that I got a little more serious about my pre-run nutrition. Last night, I did a serious carb load with pasta -- at least half a box of penne. And this morning, I used both some Chia Fresca and Gatorade G1. Plus I left about half of the Chia Fresca for my mid-run car stop, so I got an extra boost there.

I know I mentioned this, but I am pretty psyched about doing my first 30+ week. 34.6 miles!

Total miles since starting the blog: 363.2