The Trails Are Calling and I Must Go

The title is a 'lil remix of John Muir's quote, "The mountains are calling and I must go." For being a trail runner, I haven't been doing a lot of trail running lately. Yesterday I ran a neighborhood (neigh-boring-hood) 4 miles. This has been a long winter and now a very wet spring. Which has made the trails muddy and I just haven't been feeling like making my knee's ache from the wet suction effect, nor straining muscle from trying to move through slippery earth or dealing with wet, muddy shoes. If I had shoes to rotate, it might make that a little less of a sticking point, but at this time I only have one pair of shoes that aren't over mileage.
But, tonight was the Gal Gallup run at the Sandrat trails. The ground had dried out so I went early to run with Laurie and Coleen. Coleen led at a brisk 10:30ish min/mile pace. I don't know if that was the real average but every time I looked at my watch we were doing 9 something... 10 something.... I quit looking. We past 2 miles, then 3miles.... I stopped talking. I tried to stop my brain from thinking because all that I came up with was something like:
I have to stop.
I can't keep this up.
etc.
Negativity I didn't need. So, like I said, I told myself to shut off the brain. It wasn't doing me any favors.
New rule: Don't shut off the brain.
Within no time at all of mindless brain wandering I hit a sunken rock HARD. And boom, I was down, sliding into an invisible home base. I got up and thought SAFE! But, as we resumed walking I realized my left shoulder and wrist hurt. Ugh, annoying. We resumed running and my left knee sorta clicked. UGH, very annoyed at myself.
Then, not a couple minutes later, BOOM, my foot hit another rock. Luckily I did a Superman, staying airborne until my foot was back under me. But now I was pissed at myself. I was just tired and I had probably stopped picking up my feet enough. Not used to running so fast took the juice outta me quickly.
However, I'm still really happy to have run with these girls tonight. Every Thursday is a nice little challenge for me, and I need that. It's either faster than I usually run or an exercise in not being able to take walking breaks (as much as usual) as we run single file on single track trail. Both really great for a tempo training run midweek.
At mile 2ish Laurie had just finished telling us how a tree we were climbing over had fallen during her last run. Then we heard this huge creeeeeeeeeak! Mile 4 brought back the creaking and groaning of the trees waving high in the wind so we pressed on the gas to finish up. My watch said 4.5 miles but the girls say it's a 5 mile loop.
Felt good to be back on trails and back in nature!

Fourteen Mile Garage Sale & Review: Sportslick

Five days later and I still have little dots on the insides of my legs. They don't hurt at all anymore but I forgot how long it stays with you! I also forgot the stinging and burning experience in the shower after your run. I cowered under the dripping water on the verge of crying for my mother. I forgot how a mixture of moisture (rain) and friction (running) on a warm day is a perfect setup for chafing. Oweeeeeee!
Saturday was the Fort Leavenworth Yard sale and I had 14 miles to lay down so I decided to just do both. I actually didn't stop at any of the sales, but it was interesting to people watch and browse on the fly. I started up at the old DB and worked my way through the 100+ year old housing and toward the brand new housing at the back gate. The furthest houses toward the West side of post sit on a hill overlooking the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary (photo: view from the hill). At about 5-6 miles (one hour-ish) into my three hour run, it started raining.
As I made my way back down, eastward, I found a nice little trail behind some housing and was surprised at how close you can come to the Federal Pen! Ft Leavenworth also did a good job with the walking paths. Although too short for a runner doing anything over a mile or two, they are perfect for families and strollers. They really add to a park-like feel and better quality of living for Post housing I think.
Anyhow, at this point I was about 7-8 miles into my run and the burning/chafing had started. I've only ever had one chafing issue with a sports bra on a double digit run about 6 years ago. The elastic band had dug into my skin and left slash marks for a week or more. I had always chalked that up to the material (even though I've always tried to stay away from cotton). But this wasn't the material. I think it was just sweat drying and then re-wetting as well as the rain mixed with warm temps.

By this time I also needed to use the restroom and wasn't in the luxury of a hidden forest trail so I made my way to the PX. This was on route back to the db and my car, where I was looking forward to dealing w/my skin issues. In the PX I felt really self-conscious with the hydration pack on my back. It just looks, ...pretty out of place. Not to mention the rest of me, red faced, sweaty, smelly, etc. :) But I ran in, did my thing, had a chance to look at the chafing, washed up really good and felt completely refreshed. I had a fleeting hankering for a small espresso at Starbucks, which is located in the PX. I was feeling tiredness creeping in and thought it might be a nice pick-me-up as well as something to warm me on the inside. But, I still felt weird that I looked like a hiker, 7 days off trail and lost... so I walked back outside. At this point I also unstrapped my long sleeved shirt from my Nathan Intensity pack and threw that on. Back out into the rain I went.
I took a different route on the way back, which has the most scenic views on Post. This street meanders along the new Command and General Staff College campus, as well as the oldest housing along the Missouri River. I stopped off at the historical markers and checked out the old canons lining the bank. Fun!
Making it back to my car, I was able to throw on a wind breaker. The temps had dropped and by now I had been running in the rain for about an hour and a half. I also figured I'd try out my new Sportsslick Solid anti-chafing/blister stick. Although the only brand I've heard of is BodyGlide, this is the brand they carry at EliteFeet, so it's the one I picked up. They are very picky about the brands they carry and I should have known this would be a good one just because they carried it. Literally, from the moment I started walking and then running again, the pain was gone. I had another half hour or so to finish my run in the rain, and I felt zero discomfort. Had I put it on before the run - or at least when it had started raining - I believe I wouldn't even had the chafing at all. I had just thought it was mostly caused by cotton clothing but now I've learned better!

Food eaten successfully:
VitaCoco Coconut Water - best tasting brand so far.
WholeFoods 365 Electrolyte Water
Chocolate #9 Agave Energy Gel
Justin's Maple Almond Nut Butter
Reed's Ginger Chews

Review: Chocolate #9 and Drymax Socks

Easter Sunday I spent with my Dad running around Sherman airfield. The weather was great for most of the run but started pouring during the last 1/4th of my 8 miles. I had on an ipod with headphones and worried about electrocution. Can that happen? lol.

The downside to running on Post is that it's a pretty good drive for me. I feel bad about spending the gas on it when I'm also going to Lawrence to run twice a week now. I usually try to double up on my errands when I go there and visit my parents and/or grocery shop at the Commissary, get gas (tax free), etc...

But I love running here for a few reasons. The loop is 4.6 miles which means regular access to your car amost every 5 miles. I also love it because it's perfectly flat. The elevation gain and loss is about 40 feet. :) Watching planes come in over your head also makes for something new to look at.

On the front side of the loop there is almost always soldiers or their families out there. The 2 mile strip is the Army Physical Fitness Test 2 miler course so a lot of military guys and gals are out there training or doing their test.

I walked a little too much with my Dad on the first loop. He doesn't sustain a pace for long because he's not trained up but naturally, he's way faster than me and feels pretty uncomfortable running my slower pace. He's going to start biking it along side me in the future. This is what we did a couple times last year and it works out perfectly. We both get a good workout in that way. So although we walked, time wasn't really wasted because we get to catch up and spend time together. The 2nd loop he went back to the car and I really booked it. I finished the last half of my 8+ miles in 45 minutes. I just felt like I really knocked it out!

Two things I got to try during this run that were successful:
1. Chocolate #9 Agave Energy Gel

Taste: Like chocolate ganache. Amazing... sweet but not overly sweet like GU.

Ingredients: Agave and swiss chocolate. So I was able to eat it with my allergies and not have problems. This makes me so happy. This is the ONLY gel I've found that I can eat.

Packaging: I was carrying around agave sticks which would work but they are as long as straws and not easy to carry with me. I'm so happy to have a normal, rip off packet now, easily stored in my pocket.

I did get a little stomach nausea for 10 minutes about 10 minutes after eating it. I am used to agave as I use it in place of honey and maple syurp for my coffee or pancakes, etc. But, I still felt a slight queasiness so next time I'm going to try half a packet, eating the other half later.
Also, I never felt a jolt of energy. This was to be expected though, as agave is a slow burner and that's the whole point vs other sugars that spike and then crash. I only ate it on an 8 mile run so it's not a great test anyway as far as energy. I'd normally not eat an energy gel until running something like a 10 or 12+ miler. But I will say that at the end of my run, I still felt like I could do more. So overall, I'm very happy with the product and have 3 more to try out.


2. The other thing I tried out were my new Drymax socks. I wanted and looked for the trail socks but couldn't find them in stores in my area. I settled on picking up the Running Lite-Mesh version. They felt a little thin and weren't even the thinnest one they make! As soon as I put them on however, they felt comfy and gripped my feet in all the right places. No slippage or sliding. I wore them on this run even though my normal Target running socks would have probably worked fine. I still had 2 blisters from my mud run last Sunday so I didn't want to take chances on interrupting the healing process. So, for my 8 miler the Drymax socks seemed to have worked - no additonal blisters. My current blisters didn't lose their new skin and my feet felt great.
I still would like to try their trail socks though. The lite-mesh version are white and trail running turns all my socks brown. And I hate to use bleach as it damages some fibers. I also wonder if the trail version is more sturdy - especially with how much twisting and turning your feet do on a trail versus on the road... Anyway, I should be logging most my miles on trails this year and my big goal race is out on the Ice Age Trail! Can you guess which race I've set my sights on???

How To Train in a New Heart Rate Zone

Ummm.

The things you see on your daily run in suburbia.

Today I was minding my own business, running the along most boring side walk in a neighborhood near mine. As I was coming up the hill, I saw a guy standing in the middle of the side walk facing the houses on the opposite side of the street. He set up, drew up his arms, which held an archery long bow and arrow and was shooting these across the street, across the opposing yard and into his fence!

I couldn't believe how serious the bow and arrow looked. It freaked me out actually. I dawned on me why the Indians used it - it's so fast and effective! It just sinks right into the target with smoothness. As I passed by him I got a chill. I don't know why - he wasn't unfriendly. He didn't say anything and did pause his shooting but I just felt...... a little scared. He could totally turn on me in a second and take me out with that thing! It might as well have been someone shooting a gun in the street.

Maybe I'm over -dramatic but I felt uncomfortable about it. It also seemed a little unsafe. What if an animal or kid came into his yard or was playing beyond his fence and he couldn't see them? What if he accidentally aimed wildly? He should take it out to a field in my opinion.

Anyway, that definitely took my run out of boredom and into a new heart rate zone!

Neighborhood Run

Well, I tried.
I tried to run in my neighborhood. It's boring. It's paved. It's very, very hilly... The closests streets are filled with houses and then the closest roads are so country there's no place to run.
The country roads are narrow, shoulderless and back up to fences and trees. It's just not safe as cars zoom past and I barely can get out of the way - which basically forced me to stop running every 30 seconds.
So, daily runs are going to be a challenge...

The Root Finally Got Me

One reason I love running Parcours Lake Trail on Post is that I'm almost always alone. Although I usually run with my ipod headphones on, it's still nice to just enjoy the space all to myself. Sometimes, I turn it all off and just listen to the forest and the padding of my feet on dirt. It's glorious. It sets my whole day to right. I think. I talk to God. I just watch the ground go under me and trees go over me.

The canopy is pretty thick so even though I started my run at noon, I never felt overheated. I went through a huge Powerade zero however because I wasn't sure how much I was planning to run. I looped around one trail 3 times - and going off my last GPS reading (I had forgotten my watch), it should be about 1.3 miles a loop. I forgot to check the time when I got back to my car so I have no idea how long I was out there. So I finished up around 3.9 miles. I definitely could have gone more but I'm not sure I am completely healed from this weekend because some things started breaking down.


After tripping on a root, hard, my right knee started clicking. *worry* In addition, I had cramping and soreness on my right calf and right back thigh. After my run I took ibuprofen to combat inflammation and I'll be resting it as much as possible.... even taking a couple days off I suspect.

*fingers crossed*

Funny though that just in my last post I mentioned something about my fear of tripping over a stump (near a snake).

In the picture to the right I was trying to capture a shot of a blackhawk roaring overhead. It's a speck on the left side of the opening in the tree cover. Today a TH-67 helicopter crashed near Hartford, AL killing the Instructor Pilot and sending the student pilot to the hospital. These soldiers really put their lives on the line to do their jobs and the familes certainly risk a lot to be a military family.

Snake!

I'm pretty sure this is a picture of a type of snake I've seen on my trail runs. They are usually yellow and this rusty color - which by the way, blends into the reddish dirty and sandy soil perfectly. Boo. This one really doesn't have distinctive markings which, I think, are a diamond pattern.

Some have warned me this could be the poisonous coral snake. ...But... that snake usually has stripes and I'm pretty sure this trail snake doesn't. I also see black ones with rattles! Ugh.

*shivers* This is the ONE thing I don't like about trails. My only other fear would be tripping on a tree stump/root and falling near a snake. Definitely fear number 2. *shivers again*

Currently reading: Born To Run

I'm 75 pages into the 287 page book and it's been very entertaining. The book starts off with a author, a runner himself, getting diagnosed for his running aliments. That frustration propels him into a journey to research why so many people get hurt running. Why we don't seem to be made to run. But, quickly, he hears of a tribe in Mexico that run long (60+ mile) distances. Everyone in the tribe; elderly, women, kids, etc.. all run as a way of life and their name for themselves means "Running People." He goes to Mexico in search of these people, escaping drug lords, enduring an unforgiving desert landscape, walking/running/hiking everywhere and meeting interesting people. I'm hooked. And almost every review I read before buying the book seemed to be captivated beginning to end of the story.

Recommended to anyone who likes running, history, true-stories and adventure/travel books.

Fried Toes

I started my day off with a trip to the Doctor to get some plantar warts flash frozen. First, they use a knife and shred off as much as possible then move on to the cryo-thingy.
It hurt.
This is probably my 5th time going to get the treatment ...... and then going running.
I headed to the alligator trail but found another trail head to re-route past the low lake area, hitting only the flat trails above. I looped twice and even found some new short trails off the main loop. I ran for about 50 minutes to an hour so I would guess I tracked somewhere around 4 miles.
It was about 85 degrees and muggy so sweat poured down my body into my socks, stinging my new wounds. It was kind of a burning sensation actually. Then of course, I don't use gaiters so I get lots of sand and debris in my socks which added to the discomfort. Poor paws. Everything felt really good out there except my feet, and that was as expected.

Alligators and other hazzards

As soon as I pull up to my new favorite dirt road near the blackhawk heliport, a car pulls up behind me. A gray, unmarked car. At first, I think that I may have running company on the road and I'm disappointed. Well, I became even more disappointed because they were actually military police. Damn.

There were two of them and they were really nice. They asked me if I was okay (probably assuming I might be having car problems). I answered that I was going out for a run on this dirt road.

They let me know that it was unauthorized and I would need to run in a designated area. *sigh* He broke it down for me that this road is a bow hunting ground and for my safety, I couldn't do it. *true*

We talked for a little bit about where the designated areas on base are located. One being the Beaver Lake Trail that is nice, but so short and paved. The other as Parcours Lake trail. I exclaim, "The one with alligators?!" "Yeap."

See, now to me, being an accidental bow hunting target seems less likely than running around alligator territory. But what does a civilian know?

He also noted that I could run along any road, but that I'd need to remove my headphones. *ugh!*

After they took off I decided to drive around a bit and think about it. Running along any road is going to be bad idea because it's already really sunny and really hot.

I decided to go to Parcours Lake. I ran this one time last year and just remember it being really short and really technical. Technical where it goes to single track and even then, half of the path has fallen down a ravine 35 feet. Or the path is broken up and caved due to tree roots that are actually probably still holding the other half of the path in place. The path winds so much its difficult to know which way to go. Even though it's used as an ARMY obstacle course, and signs are everywhere, unless you find the start they are useless. You'll run past Obstacle 3A to just run into Obstacle 16A seconds later. The other challenge is the rolling hills which wind down to the lake area and raise my blood pressure thinking about alligators.

After starting off with the blocked staircase that pretty much takes you to the top of the "hill" you then go into the forest area. This section which I think might be called "B Trail" is really short but winds quite a bit. I have no idea how long it is but guessing I would say a mile. It's a mile that kicks your glutes into high gear as you use your stabilizing muscles and push off uneven ground and climb tons of short hills.

Coming out of the forest I ran into another runner across the street coming out of the woods. I found out from him that the trail actually continues on another mile or more. SWEET! I had no idea when I ran it last time that there was so much more trail. This section which I think is "A Trail" was much flatter and the dirt path compacted and easier to traverse. I really flew this part of the trail.

Something interesting about this trail are the 1950s physical fitness signs. "Exercises" like the "toe touch" just seem so silly now. But there were harder ones like the swinging rings and the pull up bar. I tried to do a pull up and ... yeah,.... nope.

Anyway, it turned out to be a really fun run. Really different and technical - kept my mind busy. It was also fun getting a little lost and not really knowing how far it would be or where it would end. I just really had to go on how I felt and turn around when I started to feel tired.

I got back to my car and saw that I'd been gone almost an hour. So, based on my running I would guess I ran 4 miles of very technical trail. I felt tired, but mostly due to the heat as it was about noon. My legs were shot though. After 8 miles on Saturday, they weren't completely recovered. I went out on tired legs and had only planned on an easy jog on the dirt road when I came out today. So, doing 4 hard miles was unexpected but really great.