I headed out on the trails last week for some real live running. Yep, after hanging around for over 5 weeks I decided it was time to give running a try. I still had some lingering discomfort but no real pain, and it went surprisingly well.
I ran about 40 minutes on Tuesday in Horse Hill and then did another 45 minutes in Mine Falls on Wednesday before taking a day off to check the damage. Other than being a little out of shape, I actually felt ok. Finally, some progress!
On Friday I headed over to Fort Rock in Exeter. My teammates at acidotic RACING are putting on a trail race called the Exeterra Trail Races on June 20th. I figured I'd go over and check out the trails. Fort Rock is actually two town forests (Henderson-Swasey Town Forest and Oaklands Town Forest) located on oppposite sides of Rt101 connected by a tunnel. I was told to expect some technical trails.
To keep a long story short, I had planned on about 45-50 minutes of running. I spent nearly all my time on the Oaklands side of the highway and ran on some VERY technical trails, some of the best single tracks I've run on in a long time. 1hr and 45 minutes later I finally made it back to my car. I managed to 'misplace my position relative to my car'. Next time I go there I'll bring a GPS watch.
