So with Wildflower coming up and the Bakersfield Triathlon which are both Trail runs we are trying to incorporate more trail running into our plan.Why is running on a trail different? The main reason is the unstable surface but also on a trail you are usually heading up for a while and then back down for awhile.
Here is the map and elevation map for Wildflower so the run climbs from 800ft to 1200ft on the half ironman. So 400 feet total.
So I told my training partner to meet me at this trail near our house for a run. I had never run on it before but heard it was a nice safe trail of about a 6 mile round trip run.
So this trail run climbs from 1460ft to 2806ft. So almost 1400 feet of climbing over 3 miles- extremely steep!We met at 6am yesterday as the sun was coming up. As we started up the trail it started off not too bad but then got steeper and steeper. I had to walk some parts and watching my heart rate, walking up this steep climb was no easy task. My heart rate stayed in the 160s even when I was walking. On the way up I thought- it is only 3 miles and then I can turn around and head back down which will be easy and I can make up some time.
This was a nice way to start the day- the sun rising and as we are climbing the view is getting better and better. When you get to the to
p you can see a great view. It was pretty cool.Then heading down...not so easy! It was so steep that going down hill was really tough because you were putting on the breaks the whole time.
Overall, it was a very tough run! But I wasn't done yet...I was supposed to run 16 miles today. So, that was 6 miles done but I still had 10 more to go. I headed down to another trail about a mile away and continued my run. I ended up doing 12 miles but my legs were shot and I was averageing like an 10 min/mile. I decided 12 miles after starting with that 6 mile run was plenty and my quality was dropping.
So, 12 miles with over 1400 feet of elevation was pretty tough! Good training session! Bring it on Wildflower!
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