trail running

Trail Review: Westwood Hills Nature Center (Spring)

These trails aren’t in Duluth, but they are in my hometown and close to my heart. I grew up going to Westwood Hills Nature Center on school field trips, for summer camps, and for other educational activities. We once went and learned how to make a quinzhee hut, and my dad ended up building one in our front yard.

The nature center has changed a lot over the years, in a good way. There are more trails (I think), more observation spots, and apparently there is a waterfall. I didn’t realize this til after I left or I’d have checked that out. The biggest change is the wetlands area, known as the “Westdale Ponds,” which was annexed at some point unknown to me. When I was growing up, the Westdale Ponds area was actually Westdale Park, and was my neighborhood playground.

I hit all the major trails in the park (all the ones called out on the map), some of them more than once, and even then I only ended up running a little over three miles. That’s the big downside to the park: the trails are short.

It’s right in the middle of a first-ring suburb, so that’s expected. I thought the Marsh Trail (around the lake) was a little bit longer, but it’s only a mile and a half. A person could do worse than doing 1.5 mile laps around the Marsh Trail, which alternates between packed dirt paths, dirt/gravel mixed paths, and boardwalk as it circles the lake. I love running the boardwalk, especially through the marshes; I could hear all kinds of bird noises as I shuffled along.

The trails are non-technical; besides the previously-described Marsh Trail, there’s the Basswood Trail and Pine Trail; both are much shorter than the Marsh Trail and are mostly a dirt or dirt/woodchip mix. The Marsh Trail is flat, but the Basswood and Pine Trails go up and down the hill that makes up the eastern edge of the park.

The trails are not actually quiet, as Hwy 394 goes right by the north side of the park. There wasn’t really a place in the park where I didn’t hear the highway. Maybe on the very edge of the Prairie Trail (which is a very short trail that looks out over the entrance to the park), but I wasn’t thinking about that at the time and so I don’t remember. I still heard plenty of bird calls, so it’s still a nice experience, but I just wish I didn’t have to hear the cars.

I didn’t take any pictures because I didn’t bring my phone along (I don’t wear headphones when trail running), but I will be back there this summer for sure and will take some pictures. There wasn’t any snow, only a bit of mud, but the trails were kind of brown and blah. In the summer, when the trees have leaves and the surrounding neighborhood is a bit more obscured, it’s a lot more photogenic.

Westwood Hills Nature Center has nice, short trails, perfect for an easy mileage day, or for a day when time’s limited but the roads don’t seem appealing. I can see myself doing several loops around the lake on a day when I need to squeeze in a run but I don’t want to get too far from my car, or when I’m not sure how fast I feel like running and therefore am not sure what kind of mileage I should attempt. Despite the unfortunate highway noise, it’s still a great place to enjoy nature in the suburbs. Go there even if you don’t want to run, just to take a quick hike or to learn something fun about maple syrup or bird calls or canoeing.

Trail Review: Minnesota Point (Winter)

I really, really love this trail, but it does have some drawbacks.

This is not one of the drawbacks.

The Minnesota Point trail is a mix of access road, single-track, and wider trails that extend to the very tip of the spit. It’s somewhere between 4 and 4.6 miles, depending on which route you take. I took a longer way out than I did back, hugging the edge of the Superior Bay side, and then cutting back in at Point Zero Lighthouse. The ruin of the lighthouse actually once stood at the tip of the spit, but sand deposits from the lake changed the location of the harbor entry. I saw it on an episode of Lost Duluth on public television last summer, which was what prompted me to head out there in the first place.

The major drawback to the trail is the terrain. Much of it is sand. Running in sand is annoying. I am sure that it was a good strength workout for my legs, or something, but it is still incredibly annoying. I had hoped since it was winter, the sand would be compacted and covered in a bit of snow, but that was not the case.

All the snow had blown off the trail, I think. That’s the other drawback to the trail in winter. The vicious wind. At the beginning of the run, I was questioning if I was appropriately dressed, and if I had made a horrible mistake. One side of my body was being pummeled. The trail heads into the woods early on into the run, so I was somewhat shielded, but it was whistling and howling above me through the treetops, which made me imagine it was colder than it was.

Those are the only two drawbacks to the trail (in winter). The rest is beautiful. There are a few small “mounds” but no great changes in elevation, the sand was a little bit compacted so it was easier to run in than it is during warmer temperatures, and the scenery is amazing. Some of the trail is in the trees, other parts along the shoreline, and the end of it is…

…even better in person. The only downside is having to look at Wisconsin sometimes.

It’s still better in the summer (despite the sand), because the sound of the waves against the shore is heavenly, but it is a great place for a hike or a run. It is not a great place for speedwork or tempo runs. I don’t know what the trail grooming is like if there is snow, I’ll try to get out there when/if it snows a bit more to see. The trail, other than the sand, is not difficult; there aren’t trees or boulders or other obstacles. In a few spots the trail gets a little overgrown, but it’s not too hard to push a few branches out of the way.

A great long run would be an out-and-back of the entire strip of land, from the lift bridge to the tip and back again. I have run from the entrance to the park to the lift bridge and back (which is about 7.5 mi) but I’ve never put the two together. Sounds like a bucket list item for a time with warmer temps and a better training base.

Trail Review: Guardrail at Hartley Nature Center (Winter)

I gave the Guardrail another shot on Saturday, after my first whack at it left me a bit puzzled. This time I didn’t wander off the trail onto Blue Pots, which, it turns out, dumped me off on the trail headed in the direction I’d already traversed when I ran on it before.

Guardrail is a single-track, two-way, packed and groomed, multi-use, technical trail at Hartley Nature Center in Duluth. It winds its way through the woods like the switchbacks on Berthoud Pass in Colorado. Whoever designed this path made the most of the space available in the park, which I appreciate.

Since I am a little bit lazy, I don’t even mind stepping off the trail for the occasional cyclist. All of the cyclists I’ve encountered have been friendly and don’t come whipping around corners out of nowhere, so I am more than happy to accommodate them. I was lucky that most of them were coming from the opposite direction, so I could see them coming and pick a spot to let them pass. I hope in the summer there isn’t a significant uptick in bike traffic on the trail, but if I extrapolate my experiences last fall at Hartley (on different trails), that would seem unlikely.

The trail is accessible by taking the Old Hartley Road Trail to Tunnel Trail to Fisherman or Rhamnus. I ended up getting on the trail via Fisherman and getting off again at Rhamnus, which is the clockwise version of the loop.

Let me take a moment to mention how much I love the Tunnel Trail.

I could run that forever.

I enjoyed the twists and turns of Guardrail, even though it felt at times like it was a net uphill course, which it obviously can’t be since it’s a loop. What goes up, must come down. There were exposed icy patches on some of the steeper parts of the trail, not all of which were immediately visible, and so I was as conservative on the descent as I was on the ascent. I may or may not have briefly thrown out my heart rate training restrictions to fly across a few of the more gentle declines. They were just too good.

The trail, as I took it, ended up being about 4.9 miles, which makes it a nice medium (for me) run. The other trail I’ve run at Hartley, Root Canal, is a bit shorter, so now I have a few options at the same park. I can also combine Root Canal and Guardrail for a long run, something I’m looking forward to as I gradually increase my mileage.

Overall, this trail is one of my favorites within the city limits, with lots of access points, including Howard Gnesen Rd, Marshall St., and North Road, so it’s not necessary to drive all the way to Hartley if there’s a closer trail spur. I almost ended up living out this way, as I looked at a house to rent nearby. The house ended up being small, with an incredibly weird layout, and a trompe l’oeil “basketball court” scene in the basement, and I am glad I didn’t end up there, but I suppose a small consolation would have been easy trail access.

Ups and Downs

Friday was an unexpected rest day.

Now that school is in session, my planned rest day is Monday. I have class starting at 9 am and don’t get home til 8 pm, so it’s not a day conducive to working out. I don’t like the situation because I like having the flexibility to slack off when I feel like it, rather than on a schedule, but I guess I’ll have to take two rest days in a week if that comes up.

Friday was an unexpected rest day because I went out to start my car to let it de-ice a bit and fell down the four concrete steps from the door to my yard. I didn’t realize that the stoop would be icy under the awning and stepped out confidently into the warm air, only to completely lose my balance on the invisible coat of ice, tumbling down the stairs. I actually rolled down them, rather than sliding like I have in other stair-related incidents in my life. I kind of wish I had a video of it because I am sure I looked ridiculous. I wasn’t hurt that badly (just some bruises) but I had some stiffness in my back (which could have been from sit-ups from Thursday) and some random twinges, so I chose to take the day off.

Saturday I felt good, apart from the bruise, and it was a beautiful day (any warm day in winter is beautiful, even if it is cloudy), so I drove to Hartley Nature Center. There’s a trail map here. I enjoyed running there last fall, although the trails I typically ran on are groomed for classic cross-country skiing, so I chose to stay off them. I tried out a new trail, the Guardrail, which is not shown on the trail map I just linked to. I should probably look around the interpretive center and see if there’s a better map, but I spend most of my time on the Guardrail trail wondering if it was a loop, an out-and-back, or part of a larger trail. I wondered if I was actually going around in circles or possibly getting farther and farther away from the nature center. It turned out I was not, but it was a bit nerve-wracking. I ended up running just under five miles, a lot of it at a pretty slow pace. My GPS was acting kind of funky and giving me 19:xx paces when I was flying down a hill and quicker than expected paces when I was walking, so I was having trouble gauging how things were going. I was also fairly cautious because the last thing I wanted to do was fall again, especially if I fell on my already-wounded right side.

The Guardrail trail is actually pretty nice and I would like to run it again soon. I planned to do a full trail review but I’ve already forgotten my thoughts about the trail.

Sunday I was really struggling to get moving. I got up, had a bagel and cream cheese, and got dressed in my running clothes, but I couldn’t get my butt out the door. I kept stalling. I was having an “I hate being slow” moment. Even a few miles at my sloth-like pace ends up being a major commitment. There’s no such thing as a “short” run for me, time-wise. I can’t fit a run in at lunch or between classes; it’s not worth the hassle for a measly 1.5 miles. I want to be at a point where I can put in 3-4 miles and have it be over like *that*. That is a long way off.

I finally got off my butt and headed out, running along Skyline to Chester Creek Trail. This stretch of Skyline Drive has some of the best views (I should have brought my phone to snap a pic or two), but I also don’t feel safe running on it because it doesn’t have a sidewalk, and just before the bridge over Chester Creek, there’s a nearly blind curve. I end up running on the wrong side of the road at that point because I am concerned about being struck by a car coming around the corner. I had to kind of sprint (relatively speaking) across the bridge because half the sidewalk was under construction and blocked off. I hate road running.

I wanted to do a trail review of Chester Creek Trail from the Skyline bridge down to 4th St, but in order to do that, I would have had to slide down on my belly like a sea otter. It was horribly icy, and even with my shoe chains on, I didn’t want to risk it. One slip at certain spots along that trail and I’m falling over a cliff. I was really bummed because I like that trail and because I wanted a little extra distance. Instead I had to circle back home and didn’t even get to three miles.

Monday I got out of class about an hour early, and decided to forgo the rest day by running an uneventful 40 minutes on the treadmill. I managed to run an average pace of 15:33 with an average heart rate of 142 bpm, so I guess I’m improving? That should be a pick-me-up after Sunday’s crabbiness, but I’m mentally drained. I also won’t get a chance to run outside until Friday, thanks to work and a meeting, so I’m disappointed about that. I’m going to need to end this post before I complain about something else.

To end on a high note: I have no lingering effects from my exciting tumble down the stairs on Friday.

Decaffeinated

As I suspected in my post on Wednesday, caffeine was affecting my heart rate. I cut down to one cup a day (12 oz) the rest of the work week, and noticed I could run a bit faster on the treadmill at the same heart rate. It’s not an amazing leap forward, but I’m not doing myself any favors by artificially inflating my heart rate even a few beats.

Cutting down my coffee intake has made me feel pretty crappy the past few days. I suppose that’s a sign that I’ve made the right decision to cut back. I held fast even though Friday I was feeling really gross, with a headache and sort of general malaise, and it was a rest day, so it wouldn’t have mattered, and I went to a hockey game after work, so the energy would have been welcomed. Yesterday I let myself sleep as long as I needed to, which helped, and I didn’t have my usual glorious post-run latte, so I’m hoping I’ll level off soon. Just in time to go back to school, where I will have three lattes a day sometimes just to survive. Hooray.

Yesterday I also took advantage of the warmer weather to run outside. I went down to the Lakewalk, my old standby. I wanted to try running on more even terrain so I didn’t have to plod up a hill at a 40 min/mile pace with my heart rate still spiking at 160.

I didn’t wear my shoe chains since it has been warm enough to melt any built-up ice that might have been on the path. There was a bit of snow cover in places but I didn’t slip. Unfortunately, when I started off, I wasn’t able to get my heart rate under control. I really don’t know why, but it was spiking and then dropping and then spiking again for the first few minutes of the run, so I had to go pretty slowly to start off with. My first mile was the slowest.

Splits:
17:00
15:58
16:13
15:53
15:39 (0.46 mi)

See? That makes no sense. After the first mile I had no trouble keeping my heart rate down, other than the little inclines. I don’t know if there was a problem with the monitor at first, or if breathing in cold air was affecting me, or what, but I’m glad everything evened out. I got a little bit of a headache after my ears got cold, which ended up lingering awhile even after I was out of the cold. I also took a shower too soon after coming in from the cold, so my skin got all itchy and blotchy and it still felt cold to the touch in places after the shower.

A latte sounds amazing right now. Ugh, this sucks. But it’s for the best, right?

Slowing Down to Speed Up – Outside

From this morning’s trail review, you can tell that I managed to run outside this weekend. (Sunday ended up being a rest day due to lack of motivation.)

Normally running outside is easier than running on a treadmill for me. I am not sure if it’s the more interesting surroundings, or the ability to vary my pace subtly based on how I feel, or the fact that I am propelling myself forward with each stride instead of staying in the same place. With my newly imposed heart rate restrictions, I’m now slower outside than I am inside.

I’m not actually surprised by this, especially since I picked a hilly course. My plan on Sunday was maybe to give the Lakewalk another try since it’s got more flat portions, but when it was only 2 above at 11:00 I decided to scrap it. The wind off the lake could have been nasty. I will give that a shot next weekend when it’s in the 20s or possibly above freezing again.

I layered up nicely in order to avoid getting chilled: tank top under hoodie with other hoodie on top, gloves, thin running tights under lightweight sweatpants, socks over the bottoms of the running tights (they are too long so I just didn’t pull them over my feet), headband over ears, hood from inner hoodie pulled over head and tied securely, gloves that aren’t very warm, balm on my face to protect it from the wind. Forgot the sunscreen, oops. I ended up not getting cold at all. I was worried about my feet since I really didn’t have proper socks, but they didn’t. Since I had the shoe chains on my feet, the soles of my shoes didn’t have as much contact with the ground, so the cold didn’t come through.

Running on snow feels like it requires more effort than running on pavement. I think my intuition is backed up by science: some of the energy that’s supposed to be used to turn over my legs ends up getting absorbed into the snow as my foot sinks in, so it requires more energy per stride than it would on pavement or other more solid surfaces. I should probably use my knowledge of physics to educate myself about the kinetics and kinematics of running. When I was running on flat ground, I was able to keep my heart rate where it needed to be without slowing down too much. Once I got on any kind of incline lasting more than a few steps, my heart rate skyrocketed and I had to walk. From what I’ve read of others who have started this type of training, that’s fairly standard. On the large hill on the west loop, even going at a snail’s pace of about 44 min/mile, I wasn’t able to keep my heart rate below 142. I ended up having to relax my standards and tried to keep it around 150 for the ascent on the second time around. I am not very efficient at getting up hills. I am working to change that and need patience. I don’t really like chugging my way up hills like The Little Engine That Could so I’m not missing that at all, but I would like to be able to walk up them at a decent clip.

I like training like this, not just because I can walk up hills, but also because at no time was I sucking wind, gasping for air, cramping, feeling nauseated, or otherwise physically hating the run. I felt great during and afterward. This is good news, because school starts next week, I’ll still be working, and I’ll have a ton more crap to do. A run that not only eats into my study and work time, but wears me out so I don’t have the energy to do homework/work afterward, is not a good situation. Of course, if this training method isn’t really working and I don’t improve, that’s also not a good situation.

I still got chills after the run even though I didn’t overexert myself, and even though I had a huge latte and a hot shower afterward. Of course, going to a hockey game 45 minutes after my run and sitting in a cold rink holding a cold pop in my hand was a poor idea.

I do wonder if I will see results from this training faster than an speedy runner would. Since I am already slow, will slowing down help me faster? Does that even make sense? Or am I just hoping that will be the case when really I’m just being impatient? I guess I’ll find out as I’ll end up getting faster or blowing a gasket.

Trail Review: Bagley Nature Area (Winter)

Saturday I couldn’t stand another day on the treadmill, so even though it was -2 when I got up, I told myself if it was in the high single digits by noon, I would get outside for my run. It was, so I did.

I headed out to Bagley Nature Area, on UMD’s campus. A small portion of the trail is on the Superior Hiking Trail as it winds its way through the city. The trail is not paved, but is not particularly technical; there are no large rocks or tree roots or other obstacles. In the winter, its two main loops are groomed and there are classic x-c skiing tracks. There is a small hill where kids can go sliding/tubing that might cause some traffic jams or collisions on the way on or off the loops. Since school is closed, there’s parking right near the trail. When school is open, the parking lot is for campus residents, so I don’t know what non-students do. Street parking is impossible during the weekdays when school is in session.

I wore my shoes chains, which gave me plenty of traction on the groomed and slightly packed trails. At times there was ice directly under the snow, so I was glad to have the extra traction and stability. There weren’t that many people out since it was cold: a couple other runners and a couple cross country skiers, plus the kids on the sliding hill.

Click here for a map of the groomed trails. The east loop is definitely the easier loop: it has a few very small hills, but nothing too challenging. In autumn I love the east loop because the trees are simply gorgeous and the trail is carpeted in leaves.

The west loop, while shorter in distance, is more challenging. The walking trail diverges from the ski trail for a bit, so it’s a little longer than 1.2k as shown on the map. Two cute wooden bridges cross over a little creek and back again. Once the loop rejoins the ski trail the path comes to a large hill. I mean, not large by Rocky Mountain standards or anything, but it’s a more difficult hill than might normally be found on a tiny, semi-urban loop. The scenery at the top of the hill is lovely, in the winter there’s even a glimpse of the lake, but for some reason every time I’m up there, a dog at one of the nearby houses is out and barks and ruins the serenity!

The loop comes back down along Junction Ave/St. Marie St., following the pond. The descent is more gentle than the ascent (note that I run the paths the same direction as the skiers), but along the pond I found the path was at its iciest and had to be cautious. Since the two loops come together on the north side of the pond, it’s easy to make a few figure 8 loops of the trail and turn a short trail into a good place for a medium-length run.

Bottom line: Bagley Nature Area has groomed trails, few flat stretches, and lots of trees. It’s a great place to go on days when I’m not sure how I feel, because the loop is so short it’s easy to tap out after a few miles if it’s not my day. It is not a great place for speedwork or aerobic training, due to the large hill on the west loop.