Hitting the dusty trail…
I think my training schedule is going to get in the of making running fun. The trail run we did on Sunday was really enjoyable for a number of reasons; it brought back memories of woods running when I was a kid, of my glory days of stalking my friends and strangers in the woods for the purposes of shooting them with paintballs, of running back with a flag or trailing a flag runner to defend them. Good times, goooood times.
getting lost, huddling naked for warmth, wolves”
But… I’m training for my first half marathon in April with a second one in May. By random chance my training finishes the week before my first half. Timing is purely coincidental. We’re at the point where short runs are still taking an hour and the long runs are upwards of 2.5 hours. So fitting in trail runs without impacting that schedule or over-training is going to be tricky.
Not to mention I’m going to be training for a stupid full marathon over the summer months which run from hot to OMFG hot around these here parts. The marathon training though is a necessity as we’re more than likely barring injury or death going to do an Ultra in October.
Not sure how much time that’s going to leave for trail running between now and then.
Gear wise I’m still loving my UD Jurek FKT vest. Barring tailoring a custom vest myself it’s about as close as I’m going to get to what’s right for me at the moment of the available options. I need something possible lighter with just a single water bottle pouch on the back for the shorter runs where I don’t need a bladder’s worth of water.
I like my Amphipod belt but it can be distracting as with a water bottle it tends to slip down and I have to hitch it back up, a vest would resolve that. Or possibly craft myself something like a Nathan Peak, one of the type that holds the bottle at a slant at the back.
After getting thornbit in our second outing I’m going to have to consider wearing tights when going back out. I was wearing some calf compression sleeves for that purpose but the thorns nailed me above those. Enough that wearing pants is annoying.
It was enjoyable talking about getting lost, huddling naked for warmth, wolves and the like even while passing and getting passed by other wanderers. Lack of experience with the area, on top of the issue of trails aren’t copiously marked did have us running at almost random rather than the route we’d picked out but honestly if you’re running you’re running so if it’s the right route or not all that matters is you’re out there.
And that’s the biggest thing to running and notrunning is that you get out and do it.