Tuesday, April 30, 2013

On the trail...

water along the west side trail
April 22nd I put in my longest trail run since the Circumburke race back in November 2012. It was a slow start and I tried my best to keep my head clear. You see, I have to run from my house to the trails which is over one mile. A mile not in the woods. Lately if I am not in the woods it seems like a lot of work to be running!  Once I got onto the windy single track that makes your head spin as you look for the next safe spot to land your foot, I was good to go. I ran the Ridge trail of Fox forest and started out on the West side (the side I live on). I headed West and looped around to the East side trails. It was a crisp, beautiful morning and the sun was shining which made the run that much better. I ended up taking the east side trails in the opposite direction than I was used to which added to the challenge. I started up hill and kept hitting hills along the way. I love running down these hills, I didn't enjoy running up them all that much...until I started to look around. I stopped a couple times to take pictures.

View from the East Ridge
I also had to stop several times just to get my bearings because the trail markers were worn away and barely noticeable.  I get the impression that when I say I am on a trail run people are picturing the maintained/groomed rail trail type of trails. NOPE. They are tough to navigate and barely noticeable at points. When my phone app mentioned I was at a 15 min mile pace, I didn't really care, I was running on this rustic terrain, up hill most of the way...but I kind of cared so I took pictures to document why my trail run pace was so slow. I am ridiculous.
East side trail
Natural bridge on east side
















I followed my gut instinct and managed to get around the whole East side without getting lost. I looped back to the West side and headed back on the trails I was familiar with. Ridge trail is approximately 12 miles plus the run in and out of the woods so I completed almost 15 miles on the trail and decided to run the last 3+ on the road. Mistake. Miserable. My Inov8's were not meant for road and were very uncomfortable but I knew if I had stopped by the house to change shoes, I would not have headed back out again! I sucked it up and made my way towards Grimes field so I could run on the gravel for a bit then headed home. I completed 18 in a little over 3 hours. That afternoon I finally got around to looking up a training plan for running a 50k, I was about a month behind where I should be for mileage. I am not so sure I will be doing a 50k at Pineland Farms this year which is a bummer because I really wanted to cross Ultra off my bucket list sooner rather than later. I will at least do the 25k. I still have a couple of weeks to figure it out!


View from the tower
The little ole look out tower on the East side




View from the tower
risked my life on these stairs for the view



View from the tower

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