Good To Be Back

I haven’t run much in the past three weeks, as I’ve been letting myself recover from an injury. During that time I tried to preserve my fitness with some cross training. After a week of doing nothing (except eating ice cream) I put in a few short runs, swam several times and knocked out a few spin classes at the gym. It’s been great getting back into the pool (even though a Swimmer I am not) as I was able to get in a mile swim each time and the hour long spin classes have been solid workouts.

Yesterday I decided to test out the body and get outside for my first significant run in the past few weeks. Mark and I hit the Hop River trail for a nice 21.8 mile run at a steady 8:45 pace. The rain held off for a few hours and we ended up getting in our run in the only dry window of the day. Nice. I felt some pain during the run, was tired at the end and sore afterwards. Overall it was an excellent run, but I’m not quite healed. In time, all will be good.

Today Mark and I tackled the trails at Case Mountain in Manchester.

We chose Case because the main trail runs along a ridge so it’s pretty dry. However, the ridge exposed us to the wind which made it a bit chilly, but it wasn’t too bad. My injury was sore and feeling the affects of yesterday’s run but I managed to hold things together and pound out a 12 mile run. This was the first true trail run of the year (the Hop River trail that we ran yesterday is a groomed gravel path) for Mark and I. We were stoked to have some dirt, roots, rocks and an occasional stream beneath our feet.


I’m pumped for the trail running season and am looking forward to the races in the months ahead!