Category Archives: Trail Run

08012019 – Run & Swim

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I had hoped to go to the gym this morning, but wasn’t able to confirm that it would work until late last night and then the class was already full. I did wake up to check to see if it was full or not and I was still waitlisted. Then I laid in bed… and almost didn’t get up. But eventually I did with time to go for a run still. Nothing special, just the Wirth perimeter route that I do. It felt like it had been awhile since I was on the those trails. So it was nice to be “back home”. I didn’t see any wildlife and not really that many people either. It was relatively cool, but you could feel the humidity climbing. We’d had several cool days to spoil us too!

4.51 miles in 47:54.

When I got home I did some deadlifting. One set of 10 at 65#’s and then 2 sets of 10 at 135#. The first set of the heavier weights felt heavy, but the second set felt okay.

Then later in the afternoon we went to Webber pool. I was able to get some lap swimming in. Shortly after we arrived the lifeguards rescued someone and I guess at Webber they clear the pool for a few minutes when that happens. Well evidently, this person also vomited so the pool was closed for an hour which was unfortunate. The person was okay and even last year vomit in the pool would have closed it for the day.

So once the pool reopened there was about 15 minutes before the safety break started. Because they were using the smaller upper pool they were still going to have the break. I did 100 yards with bilateral breathing, 50 yards, and then I got into a rhythm of breathing every stroke and managed 550 yards in one go before the whistles blew for the safety break. I’m glad I was able to get into a longer swim without any problems, frustrated that I’m still struggling with breathing on the right side and alternating. Breathing every other stroke isn’t super fast! But I’ll take it.

07142018 – Run

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The fog in the valley as I started my run at Hyland Regional park was beautiful. I was grateful to get the chance to run somewhere different this morning. I love running at Wirth, but it does get a little repetitive to run the same trails, even in different configurations.

It has been several years since I’ve been at Hyland to run so I made some mistakes on the route. It became more of an out and back and less of a loop, but that’s ok. The route I took actually was perfect for my 10k Time Trial. I didn’t hit the ski hill which I should do for Moose Mountain training, but there were plenty of hills throughout.

I started and ended at almost exactly the same spot. It was a cooler morning with temps in the 60’s bit the dew point and humidity were both up there. I definitely need to start carrying fluids on the long runs now. I stopped at a water fountain and a pit toilet!

My overall pacing wasn’t what I was hoping for.  I did the 10K Time Trial in 55:39 which is 8:58 pace.

05192018 – Race

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Race completed! The Superior Trail Series 12.5K is in the bag and it was a fun event! The weather ended up being perfect – about 50’s.  It was cloudy and windy which wasn’t super ideal but the temp meant that it didn’t get overly hot while running.  It may have sprinkled a little bit, or it could have been water falling off leaves from the overnight rain.

The quick details:

12.5K – 1:23:49  40/228 overall

  1. 10:07
  2. 11:54
  3. 10:29
  4. 9:48
  5. 10:57
  6. 13:56
  7. 11:35
  8. (7:36 pace) for the last .75 miles

My race plan had essentially been to take it easy until around mile 6 and then start pushing the pace.  I executed that fairly well, except that in mile 5 we hit our first (and really only) major climb! That explains the sudden drop in my pacing.  One thing I had forgotten was how rooty and rocky the trail is. There were quite a few sections where the group slowed down to make it through a section of roots, especially on the downhills.  The Superior Hiking Trail Association has done a great job of putting bridges or planks over the worst marshy areas, but given that it is spring there are still some muddy sections throughout!  The section of trail was amazing! If I wasn’t running the race I would have taken a ton of pictures.

Starting at Cathedral of the Pines was beautiful, running along Agnes Lake and the Poplar River were spectacular and of course some of the views from the peaks were amazing! I didn’t stop or really get to look at them – so I will be coming back to hike this section still.  There was still snow on the ground – but only where Lusten Mountains had created man-made snow for the ski hills.  We never got close to it, but I did see it once and think – yay we are getting close to the finish!

My only complaint – and it was already addressed by the race director – was that it wasn’t super clear that we could bring sweats to the starting line and it was chilly standing around for 30 minutes waiting.  This was a point to point race unlike the other two that were out and backs.  We got taken by bus to the starting line.  Otherwise it was a well produced event!  I got some video of the 50k and 25k starts that I might get around to smashing together!  Part of me regrets not taking my phone or a camera on the run, but it was also nice to just focus on running and racing again!

Given that the race was almost 4 hours from home, I went up the night before and camped at Lamb’s Resort.  They have some nice campsites right on the lake if you want to pay a little extra. I opted for my little backpacking tent and I to stay at nice site where you could still here the waves crashing even in the woods! This is the first time I ever remember camping the night before a race.  I will definitely do some things differently next time, but I think that camping added to the overall experience of a trail run.  I can’t imagine being one of the many who stayed in the Caribou Highlands – such a pampered experience!

That’s a quick recap.  Maybe more thoughts later! All in all it was an excellent race and a great experience!

04142018 – Run

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I put the pictures in the post and then never came back to do my write up. Oops.  This was my 5 mile time trial. We had fresh snow, but I got out before the blizzard really came down!  Overall run was 7 miles in 1:13:02.

My 5 mile time trial was in 51:30 so 10:18 on snowy trails!