It's about 7-7.5 miles one way which is just about the right distance. Yesterday was gorgeous, and I ended up carrying my cell-phone in my pocket so I took a few breaks and took some pictures along the way!
This run starts out on a fire road that is a looong steady uphill. See that little building in the distance? That's the start of the trail! Sometimes while I'm focusing on the little building (which is actually an outhouse!) I *almost* forget to look at the amazing view right in front of me! Funny how a giant hill can do that to you. There are two big hills on this trail. As in they take me about 3-5 min of consistent hill climbing to get to the top, and there are some switchbacks along the way. A couple of posts ago I talked about the little voice in my head: self-talk. Well, when I'm climbing these hills, the voice in my head is definitely talking away! Usually, it's telling me to walk, my legs are tired or asking why I pushed so hard at the beginning! But lately I've been practicing a different kind of self-talk on these hills and it actually works. I have a little mantra that I use on the hills, starting right at the bottom: "You don't have to go fast, you just have to go your pace." I say it over and over again, and somehow I've started being able to get up the hills. But as you can tell, I'm not exactly zooming up them. Right now, running all the way up is my goal. Not speed! But really, saying that little mantra "Not speed, just your pace" totally works for me.
Sweet single track, with just enough rocks to keep it interesting all the way.
There are all kinds of wildflowers on the trail, I seriously could have stopped all along the way and taken pictures--but then no running would have gotten done! I'm in love with the wild Irises and Indian Paint Brushes so I stopped and snapped those.
One of my favorite things about the trail is that they have built in these cool stair steps all along the way. It creates interest and challenge. Some of the stairs are small, and some are big.
This trail has a ton of other trails that you can hike off of, and they are also popular for rock climbers. They are also popular for lots of different animals---including bears, mountain lions and eagles and other hawks! For a large part of the summer, hikers and rock climbers can't go up to some of the trails because there are eagles nesting--like on those rocks...
And, here we are at the end of the trail. Crossing the bridge, (there's spring runoff happening right under there) and looking back at where we all just came from--I ran--you took a photo tour!See. I told you it was a great run!
So, how bout you? Where did you run yesterday? What was the weather like? Was your trail fun?
Yesterday I ran....up my street and back.
ReplyDeleteYours sounds so much more beautiful!
My route was only good in the sense that it's a perfect 5K loop and my street has the only sidewalk in my town.
I'm going to have to get more creative in my routes, since I am working on increasing mileage. How do you find/map out new running routes?
-(missusb)
A good 5K loop is a great starting point! Especially with a sidewalk for safety. It sounds a little cheesy, but you can do a lot of different kinds of workouts with that kind of loop!
ReplyDeleteTo find routes in my area I did a few things:
1) I used a book--I got a trail book for our area and it's been awesome.
2) I started making running friends...I made friends through coaching, but also running groups through running stores..or running clubs is a great way to find new places.
3) You can use www.mapmyrun.com OR USATF's "Map it" http://www.usatf.org/routes/map/ to help find routes in your area and map routes you like. Also if you have a Garmin, you can use Garmin Connect to connect to other Garmin nerds to find routes.
I've used all these before to find new routes. Some are awesome and some are...well. Adventures!
Oh--and I guess my
4) Is..I constantly look around when I'm driving around for new routes. I know it's weird, but I've figured out good routes to try by just watching when I'm riding in the car. ;D
Great ideas! I went to Map My Run and actually found some interesting routes....including a couple created by my husband. Ha. I'm always last to know about the cool stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks, lady.