More x-c trail running

08/28/2008
Thursday

Ran at Twinbrooks tonight. Started easy and picked it up to race pace in the last mile. My splits for the 3.1 were; 9:55, 8:35, 7:20, 7:00kick. I felt winded but satisfied with my last mile. it felt good to pick up the speed a bit. I need to work some more and longer speed workouts in.

I like Twinbrooks but wish they hadn't put so much grooming into it lately. The difficulty is much less, the trails are smoother and wider ....almost like running on dirt roads now. I wish I hadn't worn my trail shoes...didn't really need them and the stifness of them causes my calfs and archilles to be tight when running on packed dirt instead of soft trails.

I will not wear them next time. I also miss the old trails as they have shut some of the toughest hills off from the course. I find myself liking the East side of Bradbury the best. I guess it keeps my attention and the terrain changes so drastically that I don't have as much time to wallow in my tiredness as there are too many things to disrupt the run.

I am not looking forward to my 6 weeks off....especially in the fall...the best time for trail running.

Overall even after starting slow I averaged 8:42 pace so I am fairly happy with that. Next week I will come here and run a race pace 5k and see what I can get for speed. I plan a long run Sunday of at least 12 miles or over 2 hours which ever comes first. Then that will be my last long workout before the 12 mile Bradbury race.