Monday, June 23, 2008

All Trails Look The Same

All trails look the same. At least to me, they do.

Yesterday I went for a long trail run at Long Sault Conservation Area with some running friends that are also running the Jay Challenge. It was a great day for running, the temperature was nice and cool, and slightly overcast. It made for a great run with some really awesome people.




Since all of the trails stem from a central parking lot, our group would double back every hour to our cars to refuel, and rehydrate. All was well, and it was turning out to be a really nice, relaxing long run. After our third hour, a few of the runners left, including one of the girls that knows the trails particularly well. Myself and two others decided to hang in for a forth hour to better prepare ourselves for Jay. We decided to run the 8km trail that we completed during our second loop.

We headed out and were heading along a good pace. After the half-way point, I started to relish the thought of my Epsom salt jacuzzi bath that I would be celebrating my post run in. We were on a trail called "white tail deer", and took a connecting trail, which we thought would take us back to the parking lot. We ran along the connecting trail for a few kilometers, and realized we took the wrong turn when it dumped us onto to some foreign road.

Being mentally and physically tired at this point (4 hours in and trail running to boot- which is about 5X more challenging than road running), we had to regroup and figure our way back. We jogged back the 2 kilometers and looped back up the white tail deer path to another dead end. I know it was mostly mental, but at this point, I was becoming very tired and felt very lost.

Luckily we ran into a cyclist that was able to give us instructions back to the parking lot (another 3km away!!). What a relief when we finally saw the parking lot. We ended up staying out for close to five hours!

In the end, all was good, and I was glad I had the extra time out, as the Jay challenge will likely take between 8 to 10 hours to complete, so its really about time on your feet. It was also a good mental challenge not to just give up, but to keep going because I had to. So if it happens to me on the mountain, I am prepared.. hopefully!

This week in training
Monday - pm bootcamp
Tuesday - Yasso 800's seven intervals (gulp!!)
Wednesday - am -bootcamp, pm- 10km trail run
Thursday -rest
Friday -am bootcamp, pm 8 km tempo run
Saturday -10 km race pace run (for fall marathon)
Sunday - 30km "ish" - it all depends - I have to decide
Hope everyone has a great week of running. Thanks for reading!

5 comments:

Lily on the Road said...

That is beautiful and scarey at the same time! Luckily you met the cyclist.

You're a training machine, sounds like a beautiful trail!

Bill Carter said...

That trail picture is absolutely beautiful, but it also shows how confining trails can be. And confusing as well. I've been lost a couple times like that and when your tired it is that much scarier. Glad you were OK and hope you enjoyed that post LONGER run Jacuzzi.

Marcy said...

Ooooooooo looks absolutely beautiful!! I'm so jealous!

Marlene said...

Kudos!!! I bet you enjoyed the epsom bath!

Kim said...

I need to start taking sunflower seeds out and dropping them so I know where I've been!

Your Yasso's look great! Keep up the good work.