Hitting the Trails--Literally

This past Saturday, instead of running with the Runner's World marathon training group, I decided to try something different. So Saturday morning at 7:00, I met up with the TATURS for a 6-mile trail run in the 10-degree weather.

Seven or eight of us gathered, bundled from head to toe, on Turkey Mountain. After a few words of instruction, we started heading up the mountain, single-file.

We hit ice right away, and I was immediately mad at myself for not bringing my Yaktrax. We slowly, gingerly tiptoed across a lengthy section of icy trail. It didn't take long for me to fall--twice. (I'm getting used to it now.) The first was an all out splat. The second, a mere slip and quick fall. Both, slips on the ice.

To be honest, I did not love the experience; however, I think much of that is due to the fact that I chose the wrong day for my first trail outing. Once we finished, Marvin, our leader, was discussing with us some of the differences between trail running and road running. He pointed out that road runners (for lack of a better term) are regularly monitoring pace and distance, while trail runners are often focusing more on time.

As he was talking, I was thinking to myself that one aspect of running that I really enjoy is the pace and distance part. So I probably will not become a regular trail runner, but I'm also sure I will be trying hard to work it in to my running schedule on a regular basis. It definitely works on areas untouched by road running. One aspect of trail running that I really appreciate is that the brain cannot disengage. If you coast and take your eyes off of the trail, you may very well end up on the ground.

This morning's run actually seemed colder than Saturday's, probably because there are no trees to block the wind on the Creek Turnpike path. I was surprised that there were still entire sections of the path that were completely covered in snow and ice. At one point, I even veered off of the path, simply because I could not see it. Pace was slow today (see, I can't help focusing on it!) because of it.

Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 688 ft Location: Broken Arrow, OK Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 01/11/10 Up/Downhill: [+413/-413] Time: 05:46 AM Difficulty: 3.9 / 5.0 Weather: Fair 21 F temp; 77% humidity 21 F heat index; winds Calm Performance Distance: 6.01 miles Time: 0:52:10 Speed: 6.9 mph Pace: 8' 41 /mi Heart Rate: 157 bpm (Avg) Calories: 708 187 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 167 - 185 0h 08m 14% 0.85 mi Zone 4 148 - 167 0h 37m 71% 4.32 mi Zone 3 130 - 148 0h 08m 15% 0.97 mi Zone 2 111 - 130 0h 00m 0% 0.01 mi Zone 1 93 - 111 0h 00m 0% 0.00 mi (none) out of range 0h 00m 0% 0.02 mi Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 8' 53 +0' 12 6.8 -0.2 171 +40 ft 2 8' 52 +0' 11 6.8 -0.1 156 +52 ft 3 8' 54 +0' 13 6.7 -0.2 149 -49 ft 4 8' 50 +0' 09 6.8 -0.1 155 +49 ft 5 8' 18 -0' 23 7.2 +0.3 156 -59 ft end 8' 25 -0' 16 7.1 +0.2 154 -33 ft Versus average of 8' 41 min/mile

Posted from bimactive.com