Today’s schedule called for 40 minutes at an easy pace with 6 x 100m stride outs at the end. I really wanted to run trails at least once this week so Nathan and I decided to hit the Blue trail in Edwin Warner park (plus the smaller Orange and Yellow to add some distance).
Our running friend Susan Johnson always says that she hears at least one woodpecker on every run. Well, today Nathan and I heard at least three while running on the trails (unless there was one that kept moving around). One of the awesome things about running trails is being enveloped in nature and getting away from the distractions on the road.
Just as we started on the flat portion of the Blue trail we came across a lady who I see quite frequently in the park. She was standing in the middle of the trail by one of the bridges, pointing at the ground. She said something to the effect of “there’s a snake right there, be careful!” Neither Nathan nor I saw anything on the trail that resembled a snake, but she kept standing there and pointing. Not exactly sure what she was looking at, but Nathan and I just kept running.
On the flat and downhill portions of the trail our average pace was between the mid 8:00s and mid 9:00s. For the steep climb(s) we fluctuated between 10:00 and 10:30 per mile. As I’ve mentioned before, the Blue trail is fairly short, but does have one significant climb right in the middle that will get your attention…
Even after the fairly hard tempo effort yesterday, and P90X Legs and Back last night, my legs felt pretty strong on the climbs and throughout the run. Before we started our stride outs, Nathan and I had completed just over 4 miles at around a 9:30 average pace per mile on the trails.
We did our 6 x 100m stride outs in the parking lot, still wearing our trail shoes. This felt a little strange with the big lugs on the bottom of my Saucony Peregrines. My pace for the strides was around 5:55. I don’t know what Nathan’s pace was for these, but he absolutely blew past me on the last few to the point where I felt like I was standing still.
Final total was 4.5-miles completed with a 9:18 average pace per mile. Great run!
Beast Mode…ON!