More Trail Running in the Sandia Mountains
After running just under 40 minutes on the treadmill Tuesday night at the Marriott Courtyard here in Albuquerque, I went back to the east side of the Sandia Mountains and found another trail to run on Wednesday night.
I plan to take advantage of this as much as I can the remaining three (3) weeks that I am here and may possibly run a half marathon on Saturday, August 13th in Flagstaff, Arizona (which sits at 7,000 feet above sea level.)
The run on the treadmill Tuesday night featured 24 minutes at a steady 4.7 mph pace (I swear it is really faster than this out on the road) that ran on Precor's random profile, which every three (3) minutes it also changed the incline. My legs were a little sore from running the trails the night before and combined with the inclines in the profile, I stopped at 24 charting 1.88 miles; however, I did another 15 minutes with an interval profile that chewed up just under 1.7 miles with alternating minute paces of 6.2 and 7.8 mph.
Wednesday night, capturing the lesson from Monday night as far as darkness was concerned, had me stopping at the North 10K Trail and getting on the trails at 7:40 or 7:45 p.m.
My plan was to run 30 minutes out and then get back in, hopefully, the same amount of time.
You could consider it scary, I guess, but the farther you run some of these trails (and I think they are primarily designed for hiking), you realize how completely vulnerable you are. But somehow you run on believing that as long as you watch your feet for the rocks and the tree roots that you'll be OK. (There is NO way that I would recommend that a woman run some of these trails alone. I'm sure some do, but I wouldn't. It isn't to say that they aren't physically safe, but you never know if there is somebody who has been hanging out in the wilderness for months).
I have absolutely no bearing on how far I ran, but I do know that there was a lot of climbing involved it seemed. Which was good on the downhill side, but it slowed my pace, obviously, on the uphill part. (If your legs don't get you, it is being at 10,000 feet above sea level that might ... even though it is cool!)
I went 19:38.54 to a place (that was a little rocky) which opened up through the trees to the sky. Something that I could remember where I needed to be on the return. (Right before it was a significant uphill part too!) Surprisingly on the return back to the parking lot, I covered this same distance in 19:44.79 (and I felt that there was more climbing on the return than going out.)
After passing over that little crest, I continued on another 9:27.28. When you are up there, alone and really not sure where the trail will eventually leave you, I felt as if I was running towards Colorado! Ha!
There was a lot of downhill on this stretch and once I got to 29:05.02 (going out), I felt like it was time to turn it around and head back.
Back to the crest it took me 11:42.39, but that was in large part to the first 2-3 minutes being a steady, continuous uphill climb.
All in all, despite coming close to falling a couple of times, it was an invigorating run when I had finished it.
I know this: I've only run the trails up at Huntsville State Park with the Seven Hills Running Club (on some of the trails for Sunmart) one time. However, these two trails that I ran this week are much more difficult -- which will leave the experienced trail runner going Duh!, I'm sure.
I plan to take advantage of this as much as I can the remaining three (3) weeks that I am here and may possibly run a half marathon on Saturday, August 13th in Flagstaff, Arizona (which sits at 7,000 feet above sea level.)
The run on the treadmill Tuesday night featured 24 minutes at a steady 4.7 mph pace (I swear it is really faster than this out on the road) that ran on Precor's random profile, which every three (3) minutes it also changed the incline. My legs were a little sore from running the trails the night before and combined with the inclines in the profile, I stopped at 24 charting 1.88 miles; however, I did another 15 minutes with an interval profile that chewed up just under 1.7 miles with alternating minute paces of 6.2 and 7.8 mph.
Wednesday night, capturing the lesson from Monday night as far as darkness was concerned, had me stopping at the North 10K Trail and getting on the trails at 7:40 or 7:45 p.m.
My plan was to run 30 minutes out and then get back in, hopefully, the same amount of time.
You could consider it scary, I guess, but the farther you run some of these trails (and I think they are primarily designed for hiking), you realize how completely vulnerable you are. But somehow you run on believing that as long as you watch your feet for the rocks and the tree roots that you'll be OK. (There is NO way that I would recommend that a woman run some of these trails alone. I'm sure some do, but I wouldn't. It isn't to say that they aren't physically safe, but you never know if there is somebody who has been hanging out in the wilderness for months).
I have absolutely no bearing on how far I ran, but I do know that there was a lot of climbing involved it seemed. Which was good on the downhill side, but it slowed my pace, obviously, on the uphill part. (If your legs don't get you, it is being at 10,000 feet above sea level that might ... even though it is cool!)
I went 19:38.54 to a place (that was a little rocky) which opened up through the trees to the sky. Something that I could remember where I needed to be on the return. (Right before it was a significant uphill part too!) Surprisingly on the return back to the parking lot, I covered this same distance in 19:44.79 (and I felt that there was more climbing on the return than going out.)
After passing over that little crest, I continued on another 9:27.28. When you are up there, alone and really not sure where the trail will eventually leave you, I felt as if I was running towards Colorado! Ha!
There was a lot of downhill on this stretch and once I got to 29:05.02 (going out), I felt like it was time to turn it around and head back.
Back to the crest it took me 11:42.39, but that was in large part to the first 2-3 minutes being a steady, continuous uphill climb.
All in all, despite coming close to falling a couple of times, it was an invigorating run when I had finished it.
I know this: I've only run the trails up at Huntsville State Park with the Seven Hills Running Club (on some of the trails for Sunmart) one time. However, these two trails that I ran this week are much more difficult -- which will leave the experienced trail runner going Duh!, I'm sure.
posted by WalkSports.com | 5:11 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home