Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Hiram Hills...

and Cornish hills and Brownfield hills and Porter hills is what I ran for 4 hours today. The snowmobile trails were melted down to only a few inches of solid hard surface, slippery and icy in spots. I really enjoyed my run, although my right knee was sore for the last hour or so. This started two weeks ago on a similar snowmobile trail run, recurred last week on snowshoes in Vermont, and started up again today. It didn't hurt a bit between these episodes. I know exactly what it is from, trying to stay in control on steep icy downhills. The solution to this problem is some fresh soft snow, and it's coming down right now!

These local snowmobile trails are incredibly hilly. I find them to be quite a good strength workout as well as the obvious endurance workout that any long run gives me. My quads were aching by the time I was done. I love that!

As I enjoyed the solitude of these beautiful trails, I found myself thinking that I really don't care much about the whole racing thing anymore. For me it is becoming more and more about enjoying the beauty of the woods and being strong and healthy enough to cover a lot of territory and to feel good doing it. Don't get me wrong, I do have some events planned for this year and I might even do well in some of them. It's just that the training is starting to feel more rewarding than the racing. I don't think this is a bad thing at all.

2 comments:

  1. 4 hour run on a Tuesday nice work if you feel good keep going. I’ve been training for too long after watching the winter Olympics I’m getting that racing mindframe back then I read what my competition's been up to ; )

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  2. I know how you feel, though I am not a racer that actually does well lately, I do enjoy the trail run with out pressure to go a certain distance. Of course I will be running races....but not actually racing very well.

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