WyCo Solo

I was supposed to swim last night, but when I got home, my new trail shoes were sitting on the doorstep, just waiting to be taken on a run. So I ditched the pool and headed out to WyCo Park to run the trails there solo. I was planning on doing about 6 miles, or an hour, whichever came first. I honestly have no idea how far I ran, but I did run for a little over an hour.

It rained earlier in the day, so there were some muddy areas and there was one big tree that was down. I scampered around it, sure I was going to get into poison ivy. It would have been a great run, but I learned why it's good to run in a group and NOT be in the lead - spider webs!! I must have ran through at least 20 of them and they creeped me out each time. I had a few various insects try to ride along. Anything with more than 4 legs gives me the heebie-jeebies. After a while, I picked up a stick and I ran with a giant stick in my hand to clear the webs in front of me. It worked pretty well, I just hoped that I didn't happen along any of the Trail Nerds while I was running. They would wonder who in the hell is this crazy woman running with a stick and what exactly is she chasing. I ditched it at my turn around point, figuring I had already cleared the trails.

On the way back, I found a way to always run fast, even if you're going up a huge hill and are really tired - horse flies. These little buggers are great motivation to keep moving at all costs. I only got bitten a few times, so I think I did OK but my language would have made a sailor blush. It would have helped if I had remembered the bug spray. I also learned that my trail shoes have to be laced much tighter than my road running shoes. I had a blister on each big toe and I've never blistered there before. My shoes are now covered in mud, like any good trail running shoe should be. With this humidity, it will take a while for them to dry out, too. It was a good run and great workout. I'm looking forward to hitting the trails again, this time letting someone else clear the path!

Workout Stats:
Time: 1:12:48
Dist: ~6 miles
Calories: 729
HR ave/max: 165/180

One thing I've noticed while running at WyCo (I've been there a few times) is that I burn WAY more calories and have a higher HR than I would while on a hard tempo run. Since trail running is such an intense workout, I have at least 1 hour of trail scheduled every week. On a related subject, I didn't get my resting HR this morning since my HR monitor strap was still soaking from the run last night. Maybe I should have two straps to keep around.

From Saturday's bike ride
Workout Stats:
Time: 2:33:51
Dist: 36 miles
Calories: 987
HR ave/max: 129/161