Training Log - Thursday January 28, 2010

Ok, so the temps were in the low 40s and my running buddy Richard and I decided to go for a run after work, which was a first for us. We usually get the training runs knocked out early in the morning before work. As a result, we were confronted with a new problem, lack of daylight. Well, that gave both of us a chance to try out our new headlamps. Please read my review here. With both of us training for ultras that would take us into night hours, this would be a great test. We decided to go for a 7 mile run. This was our first real night trail run and we managed to cover 4.5 miles of trails and an additional 2.5 miles of roads to and from the trails. For the locals out there, we hit the trails in the following order: Tollgate Trail > High Trail > Bluffline Trail > Alms Wagon Trail > Wagon Trail > Alms House Trail > Wagon Trail > Railroad Bed Trail. Man, this was a great run. I didn't know running trails at night could be so much fun. But it is also dangerous with such technical terrain at night and the headlamps definitely came in handy. Especially since Richard decided to use one of the level trail sections to teach me some of his yoga moves, downward dog, I think. Actually, he just lost his footing and it looked more like a superman pose. Without the lamps, I am sure I would have eaten his right shoe as his legs came flailing back towards me. What a fun experience. Honestly, this was a great run. We had an incredible view of the city lights. Wow, from up here our town looks like a real metropolitan city. By the way, Rich and I decided to add another 50K ultra to our training regimen, the Black Warrior 50K. Should be a fun way to break up our weekly training run routine. By the way, last night's run completed our recovery week. Next week, we will be back to our usual training schedule.