Sunday, February 28, 2010

Back to Paris Mountain

Went running at Paris Mountain for the first time since October, to run the upper lake loop twice. I've been a little concerned that I haven't had a long run (over 10 miles) since my taper for Myrtle Beach (so, going back to the end of January). I wanted to get started running trails, but didn't want to overdo it. Thought 2 loops would be good, plus running down Sulphur Springs to get in a total of 13 miles. A loop consists of starting at the upper parking lot, taking Brissy Ridge (clockwise) to Kanuga, to the North Lake trail (CW) to Pipsissewa, back to Brissy, then returning the way I came on Brissy back to the parking lot.
A good number of people on the trails as I started at 10am and saw a number of them numerous times. Thoughts on the 1st loop: you sure can fly on the downhills heading to the lake on Kanuga; still some ice on the trails; trails have taken a beating from the mountain bikers riding on wet trails; this is tough - how am I going to do 31 miles on something like this? I'm assuming it will be like this - in parts anyway. I may have to go do some scouting in preparation for the Chattooga 50k. 1st loop in 57 minutes. Headed back out for loop 2. Seemed to walk a whole lot more in the first 15-20 minutes, but then caught my second wind and moved pretty well. The downhills had my hips sore heading back to the lake, but that went away soon too. Sun warmed things up and much of the ice was slowly melting. 2nd lap in 59 minutes, so not much behind my first. Didn't stop and after walking the initial climb on Sulphur Springs - ran down to the lower lot where my wife/daughter were waiting! 2hrs 10 minutes. Didn't feel too bad after all that, but a lot of work to do before I could do that loop 5 times! Aside from thinking that 50k is going to kill me - I doubt I can do it under 6hrs. Still have to see the course though.
I did hit my 30 miles for the week, including two back to back runs (6.5/5 miles & 6/13miles). Running 4 days a week went well the last 3 weeks now, but still getting into a rhythm with it.
Have Reedy River 10k next weekend...will I PR?? Come back and find out!

2 comments:

Kathrin said...

Trail runs are FUN! Once Reedy is out of the way, I hope to get back on the trails again on a regular basis... And daylight saving time is just around the corner! YAY!

Gary said...

If you ever feel like running with someone on Paris Mountain leave me a comment on my running with sasquatch blog. I need to start training for the 15K trail run.
Gary