Ugh. I Got Lost. Again.

This has not been a good running week for me. I ran on Tuesday, before the heat wave lifted. While I had planned to run on Thursday, I woke up feeling too tired to get in a run without risking drowsiness at the office, so I went back to sleep. Today, I missed the alarm and woke up too late to run in the morning. My alternative: run in the evening.

Once again, I was foiled in my attempts to follow the white trail on the stretch running between Mt. Airy Avenue and Valley Green. I was surprised, though, because I had purchased the most recent map available of the trails in the Wissahickon Valley. According to the map, I should have been able to access the white trail going towards Valley Green from Mt. Airy Avenue, but , when I arrived there, I saw no indications of where the trail entrance was. I did, however, spot a cyclist going onto another trail on the same side, so I followed him. And, soon enough, I was on the white trail.

The white trail, it turns out, was rockier and and contained more hills than I had imagined. That wasn't a problem: I'd only need to adjust my running accordingly. The problem arose, though, when, following what I had thought was the trail, I ended up on a paved road leading back toward the creek. I followed the road and then found myself on the part of the orange trail where I didn't want to be.  So, I took the orange trail over the unrunnable parts and headed towards Valley Green.

Getting lost like this stresses me out, so I tend to run faster and to exhaust myself too quickly. Yet the psychological hit is greater. Physically, I could go on, but mentally the run seemed like a near-lost cause. Further, I had forgotten the knee strap that I wear on my right leg, so I was concerned about injuring my knee if I ran too much. So, at Valley Green, I turned back, headed down Forbidden Drive, and back up Mt. Airy Ave. to my car.

The silver lining? Well, I don't know if there is one. I'm going to back off on figuring the white trail for a while and stick to trails with which I've become familiar. I am planning to break my routine and to run tomorrow, but that's only because I'm not really counting today's run.  But the next run better be good.