Sunday, May 31, 2009

The Trail Less Traveled

I hit the woods behind my house this morning, with the goal of exploring a new section of trail. Most of the trails I run on locally are ATV/snowmobile trails, but it was obvious this new section hadn't been traveled on in quite some time. Fun to explore, and it ended up out near the lake, where I suspected it would.

I had to stop or slow down quite a few times to figure out where the trail was since it wasn't always obvious, and that slowed the pace some. However, I was just plain slow today. I attribute this to having quit coffee until the WS100. I normally reduce my coffee intake leading up to a 100-miler, but have never quit it entirely. This isn't easy. Also, my sinuses are a bit haywire with all the pollen. On a bright note, the legs felt great.

Worth noting the deer flies aren't out yet. However, the mosquitoes are out in full force, especially with all the rain we had a few days ago. Also had a couple of more pleasant wildlife encounters with a deer and a red-tailed hawk.

Took some pictures along the way:

About a mile into the run:

The lake (around three miles into the woods)


Ran 8.1 miles @ 10:31/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - 140/156
Trails, fire roads.
Very hilly.
Lower 50s to mid-60s, sunny.
Shorts, short sleeved shirt, cap.

3 comments:

RICK'S RUNNING said...

Thanks for sharing your photos with us guys!
Its always good to explore some new routes and get off the familiar for a while.

Laurel said...

Nice! My kind of running!

Damon said...

Jamie,

The mosquitoes are bad over here, but I was really surprised on Saturday to find out that the deer flies are here a bit early. There weren't many, but they were annoying. I'm glad I'm not running Pittsfield on Saturday - the mosquitoes and deer flies will probably be terrible.