So, especially with the weather forecast for this afternoon/tomorrow, I planned to get in my long run this morning. Although I'm likely going to be doing some of my upcoming long runs on the roads, I really wanted to get out on the trails today, and since I keep reading Ian's posts about the Beautiful Loop, I thought it might be a good, challenging choice. Ryan decided to join me, and Valerie said she was game for a few miles too. Cool. Company! Not to mention that there was no way I was going to do the loop on my own. I have yet to run it, and I just wouldn't be comfortable wandering the snowmobile trails out in the middle of nowhere without a partner.
We met Valerie at 8:45, just as the snow started to fall. It was damp and chilly, but I was dressed comfortably for the weather and only my hands were really cold at the start. The Link and Snowmobile Trails had definitely seen a good amount of traffic, and we cruised along, keeping a pretty even 10-minute pace as we ran through the woods, chatting away. The Snowmobile Trail passes through some really beautiful stretches of woods here, and a wide open corn field too, where we saw a few groups of turkeys milling amongst the corn stubble. There had also obviously been a tussle between a turkey and a larger animal. The turkey lost. Valerie turned around at 4.5 miles, just a bit before the powerlines, as the snow as picking up and she needed to be in Portland around noon. Thanks for joining us Val - it was fun!
Once we hit the powerlines, the snow as a bit softer than in the woods, but still pretty packed. The route took us under and along some pretty major high-tension power lines for the next seven miles. The lines hummed and cracked above us as the snow hit them. We saw a few hunter's blinds in spots, and lots of deer tracks but no deer or hunters :-) It was just us and the snow. Ryan kept saying, "No one running the Gator Trail 50k is doing this today!" Somehow I am sure he was right!
Somewhere around mile 9 or so, we started hitting more hills. But we were still chugging along at right around 10-minute pace and I was feeling good. Unfortunately, by the time we hit the large hill around mile 11, I was starting to feel it. It was here that the pace began to slow. The snow was piling up on the trails, the trail was a roller coaster of hills and I just felt like I was lacking power to get up and over them all. It was around this point that Ryan mentioned that I hadn't been doing the training or the miles for a run like this, which I didn't particularly like, but he was right, of course. I don't have a huge base of mileage right now and most of my runs have been pretty flat. Ah well. I knew I would get through it - it was just bound to be slow going in the last few miles :-) But Ryan was very nice, not pushing the pace and encouraging me along. Once we got back into the woods closer to the park, almost every hill seemed to bottom out at a sketchy snowmobile bridge, and I was very cautious on those, so there would be a fast downhill, a stop at the bottom, then up up up and repeat. We took one "wrong turn" somewhere in this stretch, cutting off a few more hills, but I wasn't complaining at that point :-) I really didn't want to continue across Rt. 9 and onto the Knights Wood Trail, but I was bound and determined to get in at least 15 miles, so that's what we did. We finished up with 15.12 miles in 2:39:00, covered in snow and ice, and the last ones to leave the park before they closed up early for the day!
All in all, it was a nice, challenging loop, just as I had hoped, and it was fun to run with Valerie and Ryan. Thanks guys! I am a bit disappointed to have dropped off so much in pace in the last 4 miles, but what's done is done, and it certainly was a good workout! I am tired :-)
Once we hit the powerlines, the snow as a bit softer than in the woods, but still pretty packed. The route took us under and along some pretty major high-tension power lines for the next seven miles. The lines hummed and cracked above us as the snow hit them. We saw a few hunter's blinds in spots, and lots of deer tracks but no deer or hunters :-) It was just us and the snow. Ryan kept saying, "No one running the Gator Trail 50k is doing this today!" Somehow I am sure he was right!
Somewhere around mile 9 or so, we started hitting more hills. But we were still chugging along at right around 10-minute pace and I was feeling good. Unfortunately, by the time we hit the large hill around mile 11, I was starting to feel it. It was here that the pace began to slow. The snow was piling up on the trails, the trail was a roller coaster of hills and I just felt like I was lacking power to get up and over them all. It was around this point that Ryan mentioned that I hadn't been doing the training or the miles for a run like this, which I didn't particularly like, but he was right, of course. I don't have a huge base of mileage right now and most of my runs have been pretty flat. Ah well. I knew I would get through it - it was just bound to be slow going in the last few miles :-) But Ryan was very nice, not pushing the pace and encouraging me along. Once we got back into the woods closer to the park, almost every hill seemed to bottom out at a sketchy snowmobile bridge, and I was very cautious on those, so there would be a fast downhill, a stop at the bottom, then up up up and repeat. We took one "wrong turn" somewhere in this stretch, cutting off a few more hills, but I wasn't complaining at that point :-) I really didn't want to continue across Rt. 9 and onto the Knights Wood Trail, but I was bound and determined to get in at least 15 miles, so that's what we did. We finished up with 15.12 miles in 2:39:00, covered in snow and ice, and the last ones to leave the park before they closed up early for the day!
All in all, it was a nice, challenging loop, just as I had hoped, and it was fun to run with Valerie and Ryan. Thanks guys! I am a bit disappointed to have dropped off so much in pace in the last 4 miles, but what's done is done, and it certainly was a good workout! I am tired :-)
4 comments:
great job, Danielle! I enjoyed my part of the run completely : )
Nice job! Those hills at the end are such killers, I suppose the loop would be easier if we ran it in the opposite direction, but we don't run trails and hills because they're easy.
Ian's loop sound pretty good, I will have to run it soon. At this point I have only run the new connector. Great job out there.
Killer hills, yes. But good strength builders for sure! Not that I wasn't grumbling a little, but you know :-) It was a great loop overall. Pathfinder, I think you'd like it. I have yet to get out on the Connector, but it sounds like a good one too!
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