a few more steps up the trail (post 300!)

Managed to get a trail run in this morning before it got too hot (high of 90 today.) Biked to the trailhead (6.7 miles) then ran the shady and cool El Prieto trail up to the Brown Mountain junction (about 4 miles up and 1500 feet.) It’s not quite as steep as the Mt Wilson trail that I’m training toward in two weeks but it’s an easier trail for me to get to and it’s what I trained on last year and the year before. I’ll try to do one more run on the Mt Wilson trail before the race – maybe next weekend.

This is all very last minute training, I know, but it went well today. I was able to maintain a pretty good heart-pounding rate for most of the uphill sections. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to pump up the heart and lungs with just a few more training trail runs. It’s not like I’m starting from couch level fitness.

I was reminded today of how much easier it is on the way down - easier on the heart and lungs anyway, and totally different. This will be important to factor in for the race, as I’ll be able to push harder on the ascent knowing that everything will change at the turnaround.

I still need to find some trail shoes, though. All my shoes have died except for one pair, which are road runners that have been shredding my ankles on the trails. The running shoe place is offering 25% off on Solomon trail shoes for Mt Wilson race registrants so maybe I’ll try that…

Oh, and I saw a deer out on her own training run this morning. And a raven. And a bunny hop hop. And a version of me from a quarter century in the future (also, probably, hopefully, training for Wilson.)

And, of course, I’ve been riding a lot, too – nothing spectacularly noteworthy but it’s adding up. I keep telling myself that I can’t wait to ride again while I’m still on the bike! I find this sort of funny in a totally non-Zen kind of way – “Norman’s not funny…”