Superior Hiking Trail

Waiting for the Sun

In The Great Gatsby, Daisy Buchanan laments that she always watches for the longest day of the year, and then misses it.

Not this year for me.

I told my friend Emily of my plans to scale Ely’s Peak to watch the sunrise on the solstice, and she joined me. Saturday, after I finished watching the marathon, I drove out to Gary New Duluth to give the little peak a test climb. It started pouring just before I got there, so I decided to sit in my car and wait it out. It’s one thing to keep hiking when it starts raining, but another to start hiking when it’s already raining. I only sat in my car for 20-30 minutes.

Once the rain reduced to a little drizzle, I got out of my car and headed up the trail. It’s a detour due to construction from the railroad (even the parking area is not the traditional lot, but a temporary one just down the road), but it is still a nice route. There’s a steep uphill right away, up some stairs, and then onto a gravel road just about wide enough for an ATV, where railroad tracks used to be. As the trail turns off toward the end of the road, there’s a cave, where the railroad went through the rock. I didn’t explore it because I was by myself and I couldn’t tell how deep it was at the time (I couldn’t even tell that it was a tunnel), and because I was timing how long it took to hike to the top. I went slowly, no running, because we wouldn’t be running the next morning. I ran a little bit on the way down, but the rocks were a bit slippery at times, plus the trail up to the peak is fairly technical at times.

I set my alarm for 3:30 in order to give myself enough time to get ready and to wake up before Emily arrived at 4. She was a little early, and petted my cat for a few minutes while I finished gathering things together. I guess this is why people lay out their clothes and gear the night before an early race. It took us about 20 minutes to drive out to the parking lot, and we sat in her car for awhile. I had planned for us to take about 30 minutes to climb up there, and the sunrise was predicted for 5:12. I think we hit the trail, headlamps blazing, at 4:35 or 4:40. We didn’t really need the headlamps, as it was already light out (but misty), but they helped when we were amid the trees and the morning light wasn’t filtering through strongly enough. Every bird in the area was singing, and beyond that there was no sound til a train rumbled through.

Once we got to the first clearing where we could look out over the city, it was pretty amazing. Emily kept stopping to take pictures, which she hasn’t uploaded anywhere, or else I’d be posting them on here. I kept asking her the time and pressuring her to keep going (especially because the tunnel freaked me out a little, I was pretty sure people were sleeping in there, and I didn’t want to startle them. I was glad sleeping was all that was going on.) We made it to the top at 5:08. I planned well, patting myself on the back right now.

Then we waited for the sunrise.

The view just before sunrise.

The view just before sunrise.

It was pretty crazy because for a few minutes, there was just this little sliver of light, and then all of a sudden, there was the sun. I thought it would be a little more gradual, but *poof* there was a good portion of it. We watched for awhile, as the mist dissipated and we could see more of the trees below us, and then hiked back down.

Misty Mountain Hop

Misty Mountain Hop

We drove back into town, where the mist had migrated, and the sun was glowing behind it, the clouds making interesting shapes across it. At home, I fed my cats, ate some chips, wound down, and went back to sleep for 5 more hours. It was the weekend, after all.

Unhappy Trails

Yesterday, for my cross-training workout for the week, I did a trail hike/run. The Higdon Intermediate 10K Plan calls for a 60 minute cross-training workout every Saturday, but I’ve been making that a trail day and trying to choose more technical trails so that it doesn’t end up being a real run.

I picked a new trail this week, a section of the Superior Hiking Trail starting at the Martin Rd parking lot and heading out north along the North Shore State Trail, which is mainly a snowmobiling trail. (I would never run it in winter for fear of getting plowed over.) This isn’t a trail review per se, since I didn’t stop/turn around at a traditional spot along the trail. I think I turned around at Prindle Rd.

This portion of the trail was not fun. It was grassy, but not tamped down at all, so at times I was crashing through a barely-forged trail with grass up past my knees on the sides. I sorely wished I’d worn long pants. I also need to invest in some kind of bug repellent post-haste.

I suffered through most of this run, not because it was hard, but because I couldn’t stand the feeling of grass brushing against my legs. I know that’s silly, grass isn’t poisonous, but it made me itch and I kept thinking ticks were going to jump all over me. It was a bit wet and muddy in some spots, though not terribly so, and there were piles of horse crap along the way to dodge.

If the grass was tamped down enough to forge a nice trail, the run would have been pleasant. It was very run-able once I got past my annoyance with the grass. I passed UMD’s new wind turbine and Sustainable Agriculture Project Farm. After I got past the farm, the more open area turned into deciduous forest, with private lands on either side of the trail and many houses visible through the trees.

Despite a few cars in the Martin Rd. parking lot, I didn’t see anyone on the trail, and I suppose I am not surprised. In the opposite direction, the trail is a lot more traversable and more scenic. However, the Martin Rd. lot is the first spot where thru-hikers can jump on the trail and find campsites (though I’m not sure how one would need a campsite just a few miles in), so I would have expected to find evidence of someone else on the trail. (Someone not equine, I mean. I found plenty of evidence of those folks.) The trail would be a heck of a lot better if more people braved the grass and made more of a true path. Right now it’s not even single-track, more like one-third-of-a-track wide through most of the grass.

Maybe I’ll try it again in a month or so and see if it’s improved a bit, when I’m in need of a long run and can travel the whole distance and back or something.

PP5M Training: Week 3

Apparently last week was so boring I didn’t want to write about it.

Breakdown:
Monday: 4 mi (road)
Tuesday: 4.9 mi (trail)
Wednesday: 3.5 mi (road, tempo)
Thursday: OFF
Friday: 4.2 mi (road)
Saturday: 7.1 mi (trail)
Sunday: 3.4 mi (trail)
Total: 27.1 mi

I wanted to get up to 30 miles last week, but I didn’t, thanks to Wednesday and Sunday. Wednesday was really misty so I had to cobble together a safer route, as I already discussed.

Both Saturday and Sunday were terrible. Saturday I drove out to Jay Cooke State Park to check out that section of the Superior Hiking Trail. I got a year’s state park pass for $25, which is a bargain! I am sure I’ll get my money’s worth this year. It’s good until July 1st of next year.

People were swarming the swinging bridge, but I was heading out the opposite way, ready for some nice technical trail action. It turned out to be paved the entire 3.5 miles I ran out. It turned back into trail just as I was turning around, which was annoying, but there was no point in going any further. I wasn’t dressed for running (I had shorts on, which are fine for intermittent running, but kept bunching and riding up when I was running, and I hadn’t put on anything to prevent chafing, so I had to run kind of bow-legged at times while trying to adjust them.) and I was wearing my hydration pack (bladder empty, but a full sports drink tucked in). I also just didn’t feel like running. I could not get my feet and legs moving for the first three miles or so. I ended up with a respectable 16:49 average time, I guess… but considering I was running on paved, mostly flat terrain, I should have been about a minute faster. I can probably attribute some of that to the shorts. The pack didn’t bother me much.

Since Saturday was supposed to be my “cross-training” day and ended up being my long run day, I set off on Sunday in search of some real hiking action. My plan was to park at the SHT lot near Ely’s Peak and head south. I drove all the way there and the lot was closed and the temporary lot was overflowing with cars. My car really sucks and isn’t exactly secure, so I didn’t feel comfortable leaving it on the road. I ended up driving back to the Magney-Snively parking lot near Spirit Mountain and decided to try out the Spirit Mountain section of the trail.

It started off nicely.

Then I came across a trail detour. It turned out to be straight uphill, followed by a mile along the road to the Spirit Mountain Chalet. I made it about half a mile up the road, in the direct sun, with the pavement radiating heat, looking like a bedraggled hitchhiker, before I decided to forget about trying to hit any specific mileage goal, turned around, and hoofed it back down the road to the cover of the spur trail.

It was kind of a disappointing week of training. I felt ok, but my motivation was lacking for some reason. I’m chalking it up to a bad week and putting it behind me.

PP5M Training: Week 2

I find it somewhat ironic that I mentioned what a big baby I am about not running places I am not expressly permitted access to, and the very next day got escorted off a golf course for running on it. It was kind of embarrassing. I figured since the golf course went through the backyard of the resort where we were staying, it might be ok. It was not. I should have known.

So, here’s what I did.
Monday: 4 miles (road)
Tuesday: 4.6 miles (trail, Superior Hiking Trail off Martin Rd)

It was nice.
Wednesday: 4.4 miles, 400 repeats (road)
Thursday: 4.5 miles, road
Friday: rest
Saturday: 4.6 miles (paved trail)
Sunday: 5.8 miles (trail, 3 loops around Bagley)
Total: 28 miles (includes warmup and cooldown for most runs)

I used my cross-training day (Saturday) for running yet again (well, last weekend it was more hike than run), as I don’t have any cross-training activity I like. If I had been less lazy, we were only about 10 miles from Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, and I could have done a nice trail run/hike, but I got up late on Saturday and didn’t want to inconvenience anyone while they waited for me to slog through a training run. I ran the 5.8 miles on Sunday after a 2 hour car ride, so I’ll just applaud myself for getting off my butt even though riding in a car for more than half an hour makes me sluggish.

I was a little concerned I was overdoing it this week. Since last week’s rest day was Wednesday, I ran 8 days in a row instead of 6. I wanted to get back on track with the plan, and I knew I wouldn’t have much time on Friday for a run since I had to work, pack for our weekend trip, and clean the kitchen (I had a baking disaster the night before and only cleaned up the bare minimum) before we left. There wasn’t going to be time for running. Sunday and Monday I was still sore from my Saturday hike and was a bit worried I was overdoing it, but come Tuesday I felt fine, and Wednesday my legs felt great and ready for speed.

I ate a lot of sugar this weekend and I don’t think I did a very good job hydrating, but nothing so horrible it will throw me off for this week. I have a tempo run, a 6 mile long run, and I plan on getting out to the trails again for my cross-training on Saturday and for one of my weekday runs. My sore legs early last week are a sign I need more time on trails.

PP5M Training: Week 1

Hooray! I’m training for something again. I like it better that way.

I made a dumb mistake in calculating when I should start the 8-week training program for the Park Point 5 Miler. It’s 9 weeks away, not 8. I plan to repeat the final week of training, so I guess I’ll have a “taper” for a short race.

It’s raining off and on today so we’ll see when I get out and actually do today’s workout.

Here’s what I did last week:
Monday: 0.9 mile run, 2.9 mile walk, road
Tuesday: 4.4 mile run, road (and then a walk around Lake Calhoun that I didn’t time or log)
Wednesday: Off
Thursday: 3.7 mile tempo run, road
Friday: 4.2 mile run, road
Saturday: 6.5 mile run/walk, trail
Sunday: 5.2 mile run, road
Total Mileage: 27.8 miles

I like this training plan. Since I’ve added warmups and cooldowns and use the cross training day for running, the overall mileage is high enough that I can roll it over into a marathon training plan once I’ve finished the race. I also signed up for another race in the middle, the Midnight Sun Midnight Run on June 26th. It starts at 11:59 PM, which should be fun. It goes along the Lakewalk, which is lighted, and there should be a nice cool breeze off the lake to keep the bugs and humidity away. I needed another race between now and the 5 Miler to gauge my goal pace, and to try once more to get under 36 minutes. The obvious choice would have been the William A Irvin 5K the weekend prior, but I don’t know, running the 5K that accompanies the marathon I planned to run feels a little off. This race will also be smaller and less of a cluster.

This week of training felt great, other than Saturday’s excursion. I traversed the Superior Hiking Trail from the Magney Snively parking lot to the base of Ely’s Peak and back. I don’t say I “ran” it because there was little running involved. I was having trouble keeping my heart rate down on the uphills and used the flats and downhills to recover. It is a beautiful trail, and I really need to go back, because I need to get better at trail running. I finished with an overall pace of 2.5 mph, which is sad. Since I am considering running a trail race instead of the Mankato Marathon, I have to improve on that performance. I plan on designating the “cross training” day of the workout plan to a trail run. It’ll be more than 60 minutes, for sure, but it’ll go a long way toward my overall endurance and fitness for whatever fall race I run. I can always scale back if my legs feel dead.

My calves were so tight on Sunday that walked for my warmup (1 mile) and cooldown (.25 miles, basically once I hit 5 miles I walked the rest of the way home), but other than that I felt amazing during the run, despite the humidity. I monitored my heart rate the whole time and I didn’t have a single mile that averaged over 140 bpm. I did walk up the hills I encountered in order to accomplish that, but I am still pretty excited about the paces I was able to hit: 19:22 (warmup + stretching), 15:25, 15:29, 14:47, 15:06, 18:13 (pace for the last quarter mile cooldown). That is a massive improvement for me, aerobically speaking. I just wish it had translated better into my hike on Saturday.

The forecast for this upcoming week looks amazing for training. Wednesday is the only hot day and none of the days look horribly cold. It’s about time!