I saw a lot of wildlife including mule deer, grouse, waterfowl of all kinds, and many other birds including a pileated woodpecker.
On my second lap, I ran up (sort of) the first few hills then resorted to walking up them as fast as I could. I was worried that I would power out too soon and not be able to have anything left after the hills to finish. The trails were quite dry for this time of year with just a little mud and the odd bit of leftover snow.
I hope I am not too sore tomorrow! If I am not too sore I want to have a couple rest days and try again to do two laps in under two hours this time. But I can’t do it after the 4th of May otherwise I risk not having enough time to recover by May 12th which is race day.
The problem is I will probably have to do this last training run in nasty weather. The best weather coming up is on Thursday when it will reach a high of 14 degrees C and with lots of rain. The trails will be very dirty, muddy, and wet. Sounds like FUN!
Wish me luck…
I have 310 km on my Saucony runners and I have been quite happy with them. Until a couple days ago. I noticed on one of my runs that I suddenly began developing a hot spot and blister on my right heel on the outside. I never get blisters. When I went to put on my shoes today I noticed the cloth lining in the heel cup had disintegrated in a “pothole” with abrasive edges. The hole in the lining was about an inch and a half in diameter. I checked the left shoe and I noticed there was a hole developing there too but it was only a quarter inch in diameter. I attribute this to the fact that I never lace up my shoes tightly and the heel cup probably moves around on me. It’s never been a problem before while wearing my Mizunos. I am sure it is too late to take them back, but maybe if I stick a piece of duct tape in there or something they won’t bother me again. At other times I have tried Body Glide and it works but it is too ridiculously expensive. So we ended up trying a product for babies called zinc oxide cream. It’s 4 dollars for 250 grams (a little over a cup) as opposed to the teaspoonful of Body Glide you can buy for twice as much. And it seemed to work today.
Further testing is pending. That’s all for now. I hope to post the results of my last training run this Thursday.