17 May 2009
My First Real Trail Run - I’ve been schooled!
Posted by Brad Hefta-Gaub under: Run.
I went on my first real trail run today with Tim and Michelle. Tim took us on a tour of his local trails up in Bellingham. I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Originally I had planned to run 35 miles today, in Seattle on the streets. I didn’t get the distance in, or the time I would have had I run at home. But I got way more of a workout and learned a valuable lesson: I need to get out and run on trails if I am going to survive the White River 50 miler.
Here’s a map of our run:
The thing I was most surprised by was the fact that “the trail” was incredibly rugged. I mean, there were points along the trail where frankly, I didn’t see any trail at all. Here’s one shot. This might look like a bundled mess of roots and rocks… because… that’s what it was. But, apparently this is also the trail.
It’s hard to capture the challenge of this kind of a course in pictures. Every angle you might look for to capture the difficulty, simply doesn’t translate to the two dimensional medium of a photo. Here’s a shot looking down the trail we just ran up. This was easily a 15% grade of slick rocks, exposed roots, and generally unstable footing.
Of course the scenery was amazing, the weather was perfect, and although I had a couple near misses on rolling my ankles, and Michelle got stung by a bee, and we all got our butts kicked by the terrain, it was a great workout. I am glad I chose it over the 35 mile street run. I mean, where else would I get views like this?
Workout:
- Type: Run
- Date: 05/17/2009
- Time: 09:00:00
- Total Time: 4:30:00.00
- Average Heart rate: 140
- Max Heart rate: 178
- Calories: 3189
- Distance: 21.5 miles
- Average Pace: 12:33.14/mile
- Max Pace: 6:48.16/mile
- Ascent: 5,730 ft
- Descent: 5,730 ft
13 Comments so far...
mickieblueeyes Says:
I love trail running. It keeps my mind occupied. I have to pay attention to every foot step’ It’s never boring. I live in the desert below Tahoe so most of my training is in the sand and sagebrush, but I do get to do some trail races, in the Sierras. I just love the breath taking views, not to metion the breath taking, butt kicking work out. LOL
Michelle Halsne Says:
It was an awesome training run and a lot of fun. Don’t forget to buy trail shoes this week, you got off lucky on those ankles rolls…. thanks again for giving up your street run for 4.5 hours on Chuckanut.
Brad Hefta-Gaub Says:
This was one heck of a workout. I am soooooo sore this morning. But mostly I am sore in very strange places. I mean, I knew I should have expected being sore in places I didn’t remember having muscles… but really, my shoulders, sides, back, glutes, and calves are sore.
My left ankle is definitely tweaked a little… that’s the one I had the worst roll on… but I’m sure I’ll get my run in for today. Maybe I’ll run up to Super Jock and Jill to buy new shoes.
slowhand Says:
Goodness!
Now that looks like a nice change of scenery.
Sounds like a good time.
-Slow
luluorange Says:
You are a rock star!!! Don’t forget to recover before pushing hard again. Great job!
andreabona Says:
B - thx for your comment. i’m way slow these days, but trying to be patient as i build up my mileage.
looks like you had a great run! good cross training and the great experience for white river for sure. sometimes i get tempted to move to the east side just to be closer to trails.
mcsween Says:
I was stationed at Ft Lewis for a year and a half and although the Army is the Army pretty much wherever you are, the off time there was great. Having hiked / camped and skied in the Cascades and Olympics I am totally jealous of your run route. No doubt the terrain was tough, but on those nice days the views from and of the mountains is always stellar. Thanks for the pics. 
tanemgates Says:
It was great spending the day with you two. The trail was perfect and the weather was nice, the bee sting just plain sucks, the rolled ankles stink, but the overall day was perfect. I wanted to get my overall long (trail) run up a little further before tackling the 50 miler, but I think June 6th is going to be amazing. Thanks for joining me, I hope to do it again sometime. Tim
gor8drz Says:
Congratulations on the first trail run! I fell in love with trails last year mostly because of the things you mentioned: awesome scenery, technically challenging terrain, overall toughness of the workout, and for me it’s just fun. I believe a year of trail running with the uneven terrain and lateral movement has actually strengthened my ankles a lot because I have rolled my ankles several times without pain or injury. It definitely requires a lot of concentration because tired legs or wandering eyes will undoubtedly result in a face plant into the dirt sooner or later.
Good luck in your 50-miler. My first exposure to ultra marathons was last Fall when I worked a couple of aid stations in the Mountain Masochist Trail Run (50-miler) and I was blown away by what I saw. The ultra trail runners are a very fun and kind group of people; the elite ultra trail runners are some of the most amazing athletes I’ve ever seen.
shebalynnx Says:
trails ROCK!!! Glad you found one You may feel a few different aches and pains tomorrow too, but you also might have found a new “drug”…. LOL Great report!!!
littlecyka Says:
OMG you had planned to run 35 miles? In one day?!?!?! Holy cow. I don’t know anything about running trails. Am I right in guessing ya gotta watch for roots and tree brances and animal poop and stuff? And ya gotta fight off mosquitoes and flies and gnats and whatever critters happen to come along? Sounds…..ummmmmm…..
Fat Kid’s Ironman Fitness Blog » White River 50 Miler - Race Report » Sweat365 » Fitness Community Says:
[...] goodness my friends Michelle and Tim put me through my paces a couple months ago , and helped me realize that I needed to get my head wrapped around the reality of long distance [...]
