Saturday, August 22, 2015

Trail of Tears

Humidest day yet. Ryan and I headed to Barnstable to check out the Trail of Tears trail network yesterday morning. These are mountain bike trails, which was readily apparent in the early miles, with many twisty turny loopy trails with steep downs followed by steep ups and lots of criss crossing trails. 



We did get out toward the edge of the system and found some nice singletrack along the ridges. There were also some old dirt/sand roads which were good running but also host to huge swarms of insects. Ryan was miserable in the first half of the run and didn't like the twisty nature of the trails,  while the bugs were driving me crazy in the second half of the run. I also was stuck in low gear the whole way, feeling tired from the run on the rail trail the day before and from the humidity. Ryan pretty much stayed in the lead the whole time except that I would catch up to him on the climbs. I just have more power at this point on that stuff than him, but I am going to need it in October. Otherwise he was definitely running better than I was. 

Anyway, thankfully Ryan is also a much better map reader than I as I would have been seriously lost out there! Talk about confusing! We ran a good loop taking in a good portion of the perimeter trails and ended up with 7.5 incredibly sweaty, twisty miles. I wouldn't call it the best place to run but there were some good stretches and it was nice to be on all trails. Plus it was fun to have Ryan with me out there. Suffering is always better with a friend. Ha!! 

After brunch eaten overlooking the harbor, we spent the afternoon on the beach and got in one final trip to the Ice Cream Smuggler. What a fun vacation! 

Enjoying the sun and sand

Cheers to a great week!


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