Yay! Back to training again.

Monday: 3.8 mi, trails (Bagley)
Tuesday: rest
Wednesday: 4.4 mi, road + trails, 4 x Chester Bowl Ski Hill
Thursday: rest
Friday: 4.8 mi, trails (Hartley)
Saturday: 6 mi, trails (SHT)
Sunday: 4.8 mi, trails/hiking (SHT)
Total: 23.8 mi

This was a little low for mileage for the week, but I chose to take Tuesday off to spend time with family and it was a great decision. For week 2, I’ll be back to 6 runs a week and the mileage will be back up.

Running almost entirely on trails is a different challenge for me. I like it, but it’s more tiring and time-consuming. This isn’t a surprise, of course, but I was dragging on my hike yesterday, and even dragging on my run the day before. Of course, it’s hot and sunny, which is sapping my energy, but it’s also sapping my confidence a little, only one week in.

Yesterday I took a hike with my friend, who is also running the race with me. We started at the Spirit Mountain trailhead and power-hiked through to Skyline Drive/Getchell road. I thought it would be a slightly longer, run, but ended up just under 5 miles. It was fine with me, because my energy was sapped. I really needed a snack or something. I thought I’d eaten enough, but since we didn’t start til after 3, I think I needed something more substantial than a bagel slathered in cream cheese and a couple of granola bars. That works ok for a noon run, but not for a 3:30 pm run. I was glad to do a run that wasn’t an out and back! And I got to introduce David to the steps from hell, so that was fun. He made it up well before me but it wasn’t a picnic for him either. I still think my strategy of being dead last at the beginning of the race is genius. Then I can take as much time as I want on the stupid stairs.

Saturday I started at the Skyline Drive/Getchell road trailhead and did three miles toward the city and then looped back. I took a couple of terrible pictures. I didn’t know they were terrible at the time, but the lens was sweaty or something. The beginning of this part of the trail is pretty technical, and I was a little concerned about slipping and falling. There’s a lot of loose gravel/dirt in some very tricky spots. I sometimes wonder if I am too much of a wimp to be a trail runner.

The Bagley and Hartley runs were nothing to write home about. Standard runs I’ve done a zillion times. I covered the hill workout here.

Lessons learned this week: I need to get stronger in order to have a decent race in October. I did a crappy job of strength training this week, only doing a couple yoga workouts. I slept all right, but could sleep better. My nutrition still sucks. So the only one of my training goals I met was running hills. Whoops. It’s week 1 of 12, I think I’ve got plenty of room for improvement.