Posts Tagged: trail running
Back to the top.
After nearly 10 years of running, I’m finally figuring out what really gets me turned around when things aren’t going so well.
It isn’t motivational quotes; it isn’t conversations with friends; it isn’t looking at what friends are doing to try and drum up some friendly competition. The things I see every day does not work for me.
What turns this ship around is actually getting out and forcing myself into a situation that is not exactly comfortable. It’s all about doing something I know can be done, but will take quite a bit an effort to get there.
For me, it’s always a trip to the mountains that makes me feel human again. Specifically, it’s the climb up Sharp Top Mountain in Bedford that humbles me, and motivates me.
Today I headed up there with my friend Josh. As we started up, I knew how very real things were for me with hitting a low with running recently. I wish I hadn’t waited so long to tackle this mountain.
On the trek up, there were times I really just wanted to stop. Let me catch my breath for 5 minutes.
Instead we kept going, really only stopping once for about a minute, and made it to the top.
I can’t really explain what the feeling is like when you get to the top of a mountain. No matter where I’ve been or how bad or good things are, there’s always this renewed sense of hope that I get when I’ve reach the summit.
Now it’s up to me to capitalize on this feeling …
Off roading
It’s not much, but for the past month I’ve run on nearby trails once a week. It’s been quite refreshing to see something besides roads and cars.
I don’t know if this will translate into a trail race sometime soon or exploring more trails this summer, but for now it’s something I’m going to keep doing …
A solid start to 2012
It seems a bit surreal the first quarter of 2012 is already over. While I have uncharacteristically battled some mental issues, I’ve had a great start to the year.
Here are some very quick highlights:
- Completing, and ending, the Runner’s World Holiday Run Streak
- A bloody trail race
- Signing up for, and then changing my mind about the Cleveland Marathon
- A PR in the Shamrock Half Marathon
- Riding my bike for the first time in several years, something I haven’t really detailed yet
- Running on the track today for the first time in nearly 5 years, something I’ll talk about soon
- Running 270.8 miles, the most in the first quarter by nearly 20 miles
- And when not looking at a traditional calendar year, I have run nearly 1,150 miles in the past 12 months.
New year, new race, new blood
Warning, there will be blood below.
Today was one of those days that made me feel like a new runner all over again — I ran a race for the first time ever in January, and it was on a trail in the mountains near Roanoke.
Since I knew I wasn’t running with a specific time goal in mind for the Mountain Junkies Frozen Toe 10k, I left my watch at home so I could fully enjoy this experience.
Oh, and it was about 50 degrees at the start. The previous two times this race has been held it has been cold with snow and ice.
There’s really no reason to do a traditional “race report” — this was a learning experience that I wanted to utilize for future trail races. Plus I did not know the course at all.
I went out with a very conservative approach and hung back quite a bit at the beginning. In hindsight, I could have pushed it more in the first half mile before entering the trail. That said, I was very comfortable with things in the first couple of miles. Since I’ve only run on trails a few times in the past couple of months, there was no need to push it hard.
The aftermath.
Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd miles, I took a tumble. A hard tumble.
I hit a stretch of very leaf-covered ground and I guess my right foot hit a rock — I’m not really sure what happened after that other than I rolled on the ground. Oddly enough, nobody saw this happen.
I got up and realized that I was pretty banged up — there was a cut on my right knee and elbow. But I could walk fine, so I just ran. I could feel some discomfort in my right thigh, but nothing too major.
Around mile 3, I stopped at the water stop and took a closer look at things — while there was blood, the cuts weren’t bad, so along I went.
The course consisted of some of the best trails I’ve ever been on. I think some of that is because it was so cold earlier this week that anything that could have been mud had dried up. Passing people and getting passed was pretty smooth.
While there definitely were some tight areas, there was no getting backed up behind people for too long. The continuous up and down hills kept everyone spread out fairly well.
I crossed the finish line in a time of 56:14. The first thing I did was go to my car to get my phone to take pictures of my battle scars. Pretty disturbing, right?
I’m pretty sore tonight, especially my elbow. I have a bruise on my thigh pretty high up — I’m pretty sure that I hit a nice-sized rock under the leaves with my upper thigh with the multiple marks I have. All in all, though, I feel good.
Knowing what I know now about this course, I probably could run it a few minutes faster than that. I’m definitely happy with today though. It’s a great way to kick off the year and official training for the Shamrock Half Marathon.
Conquering another post-injury fear
You’d be amazed at how often I think about that pain in my left knee from a year ago. Even though I’ve gotten back on track this summer, I still have these thoughts racing through my head of whether I’m doing the right thing or not.
One thing I haven’t done this year is run up a mountain on a trail. In fact, I’ve mainly stayed away from trails due to the imbalances and weird fear of blowing my knee out coming down hill. Including the Trail Nut 10k in June, I think I’ve done less than a half dozen trail runs this year. I say I want to do more, but it just hasn’t happened.
Today, though, that changed. 5 miles up and down Mill Mountain in Roanoke on a trail. It was hot and humid; I felt like a big mess at the end. I got it done though and nothing happened to my knee.
All that’s left now is an 18-miler to assure me of my highest mileage week in 4 years.
The trails are calling me
It’s so easy to get carried away with thoughts after a race or a different experience. After Saturday’s Trail Nut race, my thoughts are all over the place.
About a year ago, I posted this video to Facebook and recently posted it to YouTube from a run on Sharp Top mountain in Bedford County:
I’ve watched this video a few times today because I love my voice so much I need to be reminded of how much I was in love with the trails and mountain running just a year ago. The only problem is I only did a handful of runs like that. (If you happen to be a longtime reader, yes, I did blog about that run last year HERE.)
As I look back at my running over the years, even before this blog, I think it’s no coincidence that my injuries have come after many months of just running on roads. After Saturday, I realized that the mix of the two may be very beneficial to me.
Prior to the start of this blog 4 years ago, I ran trails quite a bit, hitting them at least once a week. I had ZERO injuries until I trained for a 10 miler in mid-2006 after I drifted away from trails. While it wasn’t all that much, the first half of last year I had a trail run at least once a month – my injury in the fall came after 4 months completely on roads.
The learning experiences from this past weekend aren’t limited to my post from Sunday. I realized while running Saturday how different my form was on the trails because it HAD to be. As I continue to work on stopping so much heel striking, I noticed how it was nearly impossible to heel strike even if I tried.
I even analyzed this inset photo from the race, blew up the area of my feet and noticed that the next step I was going to take was not going to be a heel strike.
The great thing about this photo is that it was a fairly flat portion of the race – whatever I’m doing to make these changes in my cadence is working.
The desire to run on trails more is also important to the “having fun” aspect of running. In my video above, I had a blast on that run up Sharp Top mountain. In Saturday’s race, I had the most fun I’ve had in years. I still think about how much fun a mountain adventure was back in January 2010.
At this stage of my running and what I feel like is a continued comeback, I have to keep mixing it up. It’s important, I think, to change things, to challenge myself and to keep having fun. If I’m going to have a stronger half of 2011 than the first half – which was my main 2011 goal – all of these things have to happen.
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