Test Drive

So I took the Montrail Nitrus out on a test drive-I mean run-and they failed the test. Within minutes on the trail, my ankle was starting to ache in the same spot that it had on the weekend. I stopped and removed the shoe, and examined it. It seems to have a big plate around the heel. I tried to bend it out, and loosened the laces up even more. That seemed to help. Then, as I hit a downhill with some rocks, the ache was back. It felt like the shoe was defective (and maybe it is) on the right foot. Because the left foot was fine!! But, my foot still aches after the 3 mile run. So, these are def a no-go for Mohican. I don't need a new ache to top off my usual aches and pains out there!

Sound Alert

In the intro to Episode 20 of Trails and Tribulations, the sound is extremely soft. But the rest of the episode is great, so just fast forward the first two minutes, onto the show! And also, leave us a comment if you liked the show (or if you hate it) at running@trailsandtribulations.com. We're feeling pretty lonely out there, not getting much feedback about what we are doing. So if you like it, or hate it, or have a suggestion, please let us know!

New Episode of Trails and Tribulations is Up!!

We interview Flyin' Brian Robinson in Episode 20. I had been wanting to talk to him since his successful completion of the Barkley Marathon, where he set a course record.


Check out Trails and Tribulations!

Mohican Run Sunday

Nice run at Mohican Sunday, perfect conditions. We ran the purple loop first, which is 4 miles, then the orange loop which was 17 miles if you include the Grist Mill.
Regis and Gabe, despite running 34 miles on Saturday, shot off to an early lead with Ted and Mikey running right with them. I had a nice run with the rest of the gang-Michelle, Don, Rob, Chris, and Ron until about 2 miles into the orange loop where I dropped back to watch the trail bunnies take off!

I was feeling very good out there. I did make one stupid error-I forgot to pick up my handheld water bottle, so I was being careful with the water out there. Knowing the trail as well as I did, I knew where I was, and when I could drain the water bottle.

Ron ran with me the entire time, and we had a great time. Ron is going to pace Chris for the 100, so it was good to talk all sorts of race stuff out there. The orange loop is also the mountain bike trail, and this was the busiest I have seen the trail, as the mountain bikers have their 100 Mile Race next weekend.

At the Campground A, I told Ron I didn't want to run the mile or so down to the Gristmill. I was getting tired, and my ankle was a bit sore. I was wearing new trail shoes-Montrail Nitrus, but I think the sore ankle was more from the 28 miles on the road on Saturday. So we took the shorter distance, about 15 miles for the orange loop back to the Covered Bridge.

A good run for me, and the last long run before the race I am sure. (I'm working the next two weekends.) I do have an idea of time it will take me to run the purple and orange loops, and it was good to run it on tired legs.

Bring on the race!

The Running Skirt Tan

The tan lines are just becoming ridiculous. Now I have "skirt lines" on my thighs. And a big white splotch on my wrist where the Garmin sat.

28.28 miles whee!! I'm cooked. Toasted a little too much in the sun. Ran out of water both ways (I ran to a neighboring town, Gnade, and back.) Next time I run this route I will have to seed water along the way.

Maybe a longer report tomorrow. I'm going to bed here soon, we have a run at Mohican in the morning!

Where did the week go?

Mohican race is 29 days off. Yikes! And I still have my stupid 17 days-in-a-row of work starting Tuesday. SO, after the 20K Saturdy and the Mohican run on Sunday, I will be starting a looong taper. Maybe that will be good. I hope!

The husband went out of town Tuesday, so the dogs have been really off kilter. I decided to run on the treadmill at home, so I wouldn't be leaving the pups alone.
We got a nice long walk in. Then Tino decided to jump on the dock.




He then goes to the end and leans over to drink. You know what is coming. I snapped the picture just as he went into the drink!!




It was sooo funny but the poor guy looked so scared as he surfaced, I didn't have the heart to laugh all that much!

We also had to water the garden beds, since we haven't had any rain since we planted on Tuesday.

A Midsummer Laurel Highlands Run

I've been thinking about the Laurel Highlands Trail on some of my runs lately. This was the site of our FA last November, where I dropped at 38 miles, alot due to my excercised induced asthma. I really want to get back over there for a run on the whole trail again-70 miles.

I am thinking of doing this in July. Depending on work (I shouldn't be working weekends by then) I am thinking of doing this probably the same time as the Buckeye Trail 50K. ( I want to run the Rattlesnake 50K in WV the weekend before more.)

Anyone up for a FA 70 miler on the Laurel Highlands Trail in PA in July? I can guarantee no snow this time!

I got good dirt

Just crowing about my garden. We got the raised beds tilled up-man we have nice dirt. We work hard at it. We have 8 raised beds. One bed is always reserved as the compost pile-we dump all compostables into it-coffee grounds and filters, all non-meat food wastes (dogs eat any meat wastes). I will usually dump some grass clippings in. When we fish in the pond, any small blue gill fish we catch go into it. Any fish parts when we clean fish go into the compost (buried deep!).

Before the garden work, I did get an hour run in after work. It was a Cavewoman run, forgot all my gadgets but the Zune. Legs didn't warm up for about two miles, due to running on asphalt.

Weekend Recap

I got to sleep in both mornings. Bliss!!
5 mile trail run Friday afternoon. I was a bit disappointed to find my new portion of trail didn't go much farther than I had already run on it. I tried to go off piste but ended up in multiflower rose thickets-didn't work so well.
Saturday I had all intentions of a 11 mile run. I cut it to four miles-just wasn't feeling the love.
Sunday, I decided to run the same 11 mile course-but I did it backwards. So there wasn't the same point to bail out. After the first 4 miles (road running) my legs warmed up. Speaking of warming up, it's not happening here in Ohio. I was running in capris and a short sleeved shirt. It's mid May here!! Ridiculous! I need heat and humidity! Mohican is in about 30 days-and it will be hot and humid!!
Speaking of Mohican, I have been getting some thinking and planning done for a race plan. I have drop bags planned, and basic changes of shoes planned. (That really is a last minute detail, contingent on race conditions.) But I have bought a new pair of trail shoes; I have new Injinji socks and ClifBlok Shots for nutrition.
My husband reminded me Friday that he's going out of town later this week for a reunion at Fort Bragg-that's one of the reasons my training was light this weekend. With him out of town, I am hoping to get some good mileage evenings in. All I will have to do is feed the dogs and take them for our daily hike around the estate, then I can go run!
I am going to go over to Wheeling WV and run the Ogden 20K Classic on Saturday. This is a nice hilly race, so it will be a good hill workout, and I want to be around people for a change!

I found a new trail

Okay, it's part of my old trail.. My little trail which runs around the top of a hill and a golf course..Regis and Rich have been telling me this trail was longer, but I never saw the branch off until today..
And I was off on it like a flash! New single track! The way the rose bushes were growing across it, and the deer feet imprints, not heavily travelled upon! I found a new 1.5 mile loop..and I didn't even explore all the other jeep trails, (and deer trails) I saw going about. I am stoked. I can add some mileage on this little 3 mile loop I had previously.

All the crap from work melted away, and I got the happy endorphins from running!

New Episode of Trails and Tribulatios is out!

And this is a doozy. We talk to laz himself. Yes, Gary Cantrell, the Race Director of the Strolling Jim, the Vol State Race, and the Barkley Marathon. Cruise over to www.trailsandtribulations.com and give it a listen. It was really fun to talk to Gary.

3 Days at Mohican

Friday night May 9

What a good turn out. Mike has the picture; we had 15-19 folks out for the evening road portion. This was the ten miles of the beginning of the race, from Mohican Wilderness Campgrounds, to Rock Point, where you turn off for the trails. Then, you almost follow the same way back, on the roads, from miles 90 to the finish.

The rain began almost immediately as we walked up the first big hill. It was pretty warm, and we were climbing up and down hills, so it wasn't so bad. As lights came on, the rain got harder. Bullet was running with me and Ron at this point, as we ran by an intersecting road..he commented " I always want to turn there.." well, sure enough, we should have listened to him, because we went a litte ways out of the way!
Mike dropped back to run with Ron and I, and Bullet disappeared off into the distance. We hit Rock Point, had some snacks and refilled water bottles, and turned for the last ten miles. Somewhere in here Ron admitted he was hurting. We could tell, from his gait, that something had been hurting for quite some time. So we soldiered on with Ron, Mike and I chatting to distract Ron and keep ourselves going.
It was really starting to get cold with about 4 miles to go, and getting windy. I finally put on my long sleeved shirt that I had tied around my waist, since, even wet, it should help a little bit.
About one mile further, a car passed us, turned around, and came up behind us. We thought it was our friend Roy, checking on us. Then a guy got out of the car and whistled. We all turned. He yells "are you with the church group?" Mike jogs back a few feet, telling him no, we're training for the 100 mile run. Ron and I go on, since it's cold, raining and we can't afford to stand around and lose body heat. We slow up in a few minutes, because Mike's not back yet. He finally comes running up to us, saying he had a confrontation with this guy! This guy told him, we shouldn't be out running around on the roads in the middle of the night, he's going to get his dad to change the race course, etc etc!! We couldn't believe it.
(And interesting, we find out the same guy accosted runners last year, in about the same place!!)
This gives us something to talk about for a little while, and then we start up the big hill, and Mike makes us play the grocery store word game " I went to the grocery store and bought..avocado, bananas, cantelope.." Each person has to repeat all the other things bought and add their own. Try this after running 4 hours in the rain!
We finally get back to Mohican Wilderness and take showers before collapsing in the tent!

Saturday May 10




Another great turn out. 20 or more runners?? We run the purple loop first. This is a short 4 mile which takes up climbing up beside one waterfal and then down another waterfall. Bullet takes one for the team and slips spectacularly! on the first slick wooden bridge we cross. Ooops! It's slick out there!
We then run the red-green sections, which is about 21 miles. I am running with Cheryl at this point. Mike also drops back and runs with us. He's having serious motivational issues on being there, so I just keep pressing him forward-and feeding him all my food!
It was a great day on Saturday. Nice cool weather. It was a slow day on the trails due to the muddiness, but I felt strong. Knees and quads started to really stiffen up toward the end, but hey, after 40 miles of mileage, that could be expected.

Sunday May 11



Yes, it's a blurry picture. I blame the rain!

The rain began at 730am when I arrived at the Covered Bridge. Only about ten of us started on this loop-3 runners bailed on even starting. I was having second thoughts too. I knew of a few places where I could cut the run short, and even told Roy not to look for me, I'd probably take a short cut back.
The woods were not fully leafed enough to keep the rain off us. And it was coming down. And it was cold. I was moving very slowly, and decided I did not want to endure another five hours of this. I told Cheryl I was bailing at the first shortcut, and my Sunday total was 4-5 miles! But it was worth it being home eating hot spaghetti at lunchtime!





It was a good training weekend. But there was no heat involved! I think this could be another typical spring for Mo, cold spring, little heat acclimation, then BOOM! week of race, up to our normal 80 degree weather!

Mohican Trail Run May 3rd

The call went out from the Fresno Running Club to run Mohican Saturday, May 3. I gladly sacrificed my sleeping in time to meet up with Rich and Wendy and drive over to the CB. Once there, we found, Regis, Gabe, Rob, Michelle, Jack and Trevor waiting for a fun run!






It was raining slightly as we started, and continued as the day progressed. Running in the first two miles of the red loop, I caught a rock and immediately did a belly flop down-oops!! I took up last position to shake it off and followed the gang up the hill. Rob and I chatted a bit as we approached Bridle Staging, then I stopped at the rest rooms and he took off ahead. As I ran through the horse camp, at least 12folks uder an big awning starting cheering me! They must have thought we were actually racing! Too funny! That's more folks that cheered at the actual Mo race!

Although Rob's yellow shirt was still in the distance, I knew I couldn't catch him and settled into a nice running pace. The greenery of the forest,the patter down of the rain made a perfect coccoon around me as I simply ran. Very zen like for me out there today.

I hit Rock Point at 2.5 hours I was very pleased with my time. Thanks to Rob and Rich, we had water seeded at Sand Hill, Rock Point, South Park, and Fire Tower. It made it a much more enjoyable run knowing there was water ahead. I decided to play a little timing game-I wanted to make it to South Park in 1 hour-and I was dead on!


After the Fire Tower, I decided I wanted a sub five hour 21 mile run. So I ran. Until I hit the little wooden bridges down in the Gorge, I decided I didn't want to bust my butt with a mile left to go. I heard the Garmin beep over 5 hours down here, but I was very happy to finish up with a 5.05 21 mile run!






We are having the training run at Mohican next weekend.
Friday, 20 miles on the roads. From Mohican Wilderness (the race starting point) to Rockpoint. Then From Rockpoint, back to MH, but following the route at the end of the race.
Saturday, I believe 25 miles. The purple loop (4) miles and the Red-Green Sections (21) miles.
Sunday: The orange loop, 17 miles. Check out the Mohican Yahoo! Group for details!