Sunday, December 05, 2010

More Trail Exploration

Another morning of trail exploration, this time on some local trails near my house. I started off on some trails I'm familiar with, but veered on to another one which I suspected would connect to some other known trails and form a loop. That turned out to be the case.

About a mile and half into the run, I saw an owl (looked like a barred) getting chased around by two blue jays. I stopped and watched for a few minutes. Good entertainment from my perspective, but the blue jays looked pissed and the owl quite annoyed.

I then reached the new trail which was a lot of fun to run on. About a mile or so later, it connected to a trail I knew about, but in a different spot than I had expected. Cruised along and in the final mile I tripped and landed smack dab in the middle of a large mud puddle, and my pants and gloves were covered in earthy goo. Well, what's a trail run without getting a bit muddy, eh? Loop turned out a bit shorter than I thought it would, but still a good one. I'll definitely hit this one again.

Worth noting the heart rate monitor strap performed perfectly again today, as it has the past few days. Wetting down both sides of the stap with water pretty liberally seems to do the trick. Happy about that.

Ran 6.1 miles @ 9:27/mile pace.
AHR/MHR - 133/148
Trails.
Very hilly.
Lower 30s, overcast, intermittent light snow flurries.
X-Shoes, long pants, fleece pullover, short sleeved shirt, beanie, gloves.

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3 comments:

Love2Run said...

Jumping in a mud puddle is also great for making the contacts work! Good run!

Luc said...

New trails are the best! There is a local owl at my favorite nature preserve. I see him/her all the time and sometimes it freaks me out when it just stares at me while I run by... :)

Have you ever ran up on moose? I ran up on a family of deer today, but wouldn't know how to react to a friggen Maine Moose!?

Jamie Anderson said...

Yep, saw a moose a little over a year ago just a mile behind my house. Just a cow, and I observed her for a bit from a safe distance. Pretty cool.