Showing posts with label trail run. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trail run. Show all posts

Friday, June 16, 2017

Trail Running

About a year ago, I went for my first group run on trails. It was love at first sight! I wasn't running a ton, but I was almost always at that weekly group run. And since I was just getting back in to running, and it was summer and hot, I was dreadfully slow and pokey and sometimes felt like roadkill.

I haven't had many opportunities to get back out there yet this year, plus trail running didn't really go along with my fast half marathon goal for the spring, but now that my training is a lot more relaxed for the next month and a half, I'm really excited to get back out on the trails.

The focus is so much different than running on the road. I find myself paying zero attention to my pace, walking/hiking when I need to, stopping to take pictures when the beautiful scenery demands it. I'm hoping I can making the Thursday night trail runs a constant this summer. I even bought a pair of trail shoes (eeps!).

Now searching for: pug gaiters.



Monday, July 27, 2009

First Double Day + Long Run Report

Busy weekend = no blogger/running update. It also means that I haven't had a chance to upload any data from G-man to my computer, so any times are from memory.

Thursday night was my first official double run. Thursday morning I did a kick ass tempo run, and had planned to do an easy 4 miler after work Thursday night. After battling a horrendous headache all day at work, my ibuprofen finally kicked in and I had a super fun run. There is an "outdoor campus" pretty close to my place, and I see people running on the trails there when I start out on the bike trails, and decided to check it out. I figured running on dirt would be just what the legs needed/wanted for run #2 of the day. I was right, it was awesome. I felt like a little kid running through the dirt trail deciding at the fork in the trail whether to take a left or a right, laughing to myself when I'd come full circle without realizing it. I could've ran on the trails forever. Except that it was getting dark out, and I'm slightly directionally challenged without the sun to guide me, so I high tailed it out of there once the sun was no longer visible through the trees. I did have a chance encounter with a raccoon that almost scared the pants off of me. After 2.25 miles there, I decided to run a short route around my apartment area to make it an even 4. Let me tell you, running on dirt really slows you down. My pace for the first 2 miles and change were around 10:15-10:30. The last part was closer to 9-9:30. SUPER fun though, and will definitely be back for another easy run. I think the legs will thank me.

Friday was Taylor's brother's rehearsal dinner. Food was good. 1 glass of wine + 1 short glass of beer over a 5 hour span (much better than the drinking fest that was the last two weekends) was good. Company was good (two of Taylor's HS friends were back in town, and they're two of my favorite friends of his). I somehow convinced Tay that 1am was a good bedtime, and I didn't have to go to the final bar of the night. Unluckily for me, Taylor had been drinking since 10am when the groomsmen went golfing, so he was a snoring machine. I promptly kicked him out of bed, and was bright eyed and bushy tailed for my 7am long run wake up call.

I snagged a banana to eat on the way back to town and had decided to start my run at a different spot on the trail since I had to drive back to town anyway. It was super fun to switch things up, even though about 3 miles of the 10 mile run were on the same part of the trail that I run all the time. I decided to take this 10 miler easier than last week's. Most of my splits for the first 5 miles were right around 9:10. The next 2 I aimed for 9:00 and the last 3 I ran as hard as my legs wanted to. Which ended up being around 8:45-8:50. My overall time averaged out to a 9:00 mm pace. I had a blueberry pomegranate GU Roctane around mile 3.5 and I think that's the best flavor I've had yet. It was pretty tasty. :) I'm trying to think of any weird sightings that I had throughout the run, but I must've been zoning because I can't think of any.

Edited to add splits from the G-man:
1. 9:29 2. 9:06 3. 9:10 4. 9:07 5. 9:12 6. 9:02 7. 9:00 8. 8:58 9. 8:44 10. 8:16

Saturday was the wedding and reception. It was a blast. Somehow I only managed to take one photo. Perhaps Foto Friday it will make an appearance. :) I am still in recovery mode today from the festivities, so lucky for me I have a rest day today. Yay for shuffling the schedule last week!

OH! I also hit 100 miles for the month during my long run. I totally forgot about it until I was entering it into my running blog. I feel like I should've done a celebratory run/dance/shuffle at .4 of the long run, but alas. Maybe next month. :)