Sometimes I tell people that the reason I run is that I hate to let a nice day go to waste. Today was one of those days. The temperature this morning was slightly above 70, the humidity was lower than it had been in four or five days, and the sky was a clear, bright blue. With conditions like these, I would have needed an excuse not to run.
I had one, of course, but I didn't use it. I slept poorly last night, so I was tempted to scrap the run altogether. Perhaps I would have taken advantage of the excuse had the air been hot and humid, but, instead, I settled for a conservative running strategy. I decided to limit my run to four miles, but, as compensation, I also cut back on the frequency of walk breaks. I had been wanting to determine how much the breaks had been affecting my time anyway.
Today I took what will probably turn out to be one of my preferred four-mile routes. I ran down Forbidden Drive toward Lincoln Drive, turned around at two miles, crossed over the bridge to the orange trail, followed the trail for a mile, and then returned to Forbidden Drive. I ran the entire course in 41:38, that is, at a 10:15/mile pace. I took less frequent walk breaks, but I did stop for about a minute to ... well ... trails offer some distinctive conveniences, now, don't they?
I've found that the segment of the orange trail I ran today is marginally easier to run in the opposite direction than I went today. In particular, there are some rock formations that are easier to ascend than to descend. In the latter case, a runner faces the peril of losing her footing, and the same gravity that extracts power from those who resist it--that same gravity stands ready to bring the runner crashing down.
I'm finding, too, that the trails contain some unavoidable nuisances that force one to break the run: fallen trees. While it's possible to jump over some of them, others force one to crouch down and pass underneath. But such is the character of trail running.
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