It's not the heat....

I went on a long trail run today with the Flyers on the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail. The plan was to do 20 miles, but in the end I settled for 18.5. The humidity was brutal, and experts say that sometimes you have to be flexible with your training plans when weather gets in the way. Yeah, I was listening to the experts, that's it...

There was a huge turnout of Flyers and the trail was sweet. I'm not an experienced trail runner, and I'm often nervous about beating up my legs, even on relatively smooth trails. Despite what everyone says about softer surfaces reducing injury, I've always been more comfortable running on the road. Today, however, I felt much better. I think my legs are developing the different muscles that you need for trail running. Of course, I'm not talking about anything rugged. These trails are smooth and well groomed.

The runners broke into several groups, based on planned distance and pace. I went out with a 20 mile group (I hadn't started "listening to the experts" yet...). We started off at an easy pace, but my body was telling me to go faster (listening to your body is not always a good idea). I picked up the pace, leaving my group behind, but feeling great. At around mile 8, I met up with a group of 5 Flyers that was going at a good clip, and I decided to run with them for a while.

These folks all race faster than me, but they were running a reasonable "long training run pace". If I put out a little extra effort, I could hang. Two of the group split off and the remaining three of us pressed on toward the full 20. At around mile 16, I was spent. I dropped off the pace and did the best I could, but after a while, I was only running because walking would have taken too long. When I got back to the start point, my GPS indicated that I had run 18.56 miles, and I decided that was juuuuuuuuuuust right.

I enjoyed a lovely Gatorade cocktail, and exchanged stories with the runners that had finished while we waited for the others to come in. The great thing is that even though this run kicked my butt, I'm more excited about running then ever. I'll be back!