This week was definitely better than the previous. I was only short 5.3 miles of the 26 on the plan for the week. The highlight of the week was getting the opportunity to visit Ft. Richardson State Park and get a 6 mile run on those trails. More on that later. (I have pictures! ;-))
I really appreciate the flexibility I’ve been allowing myself in how and where I train. This week’s training consisted of running at the fitness center on a treadmill, Freestone County roads, Ft. Richardson SP, and finally a 3+ mile walk on county roads while catching up with a cousin on the phone.
Besides the opportunity to explore a new (to me) state park, a big accomplishment for the week was my 8 mile long run. I did it without too much fuss in getting out to start and wasn’t completely wasted when I got back home. I’ve gotten to where I drive out about a mile from home and park out of the way on one of the drives to the natural gas wells(?) dotting this area. (If you use the satellite view on Google maps, all those white patches you see against the green of pastures are gas wells.) The drive out is to avoid most of the dogs. While none have proven dangerous, it’s still more than a little disconcerting to be charged by a pitbull or multiple dogs at once.
I started later than usual, close to 9:30 AM. I usually try to be back at the house and in the air conditioning before that time of the morning. I needed some sun exposure, though, and some work in warmer temperatures. This in preparing for the half-marathon I have coming up in a week. At least, that was how I justified not getting out of bed at 6:30 AM and why I’d be still be out on the county road finishing my run close to 11:00, with the sun high in the sky.
It went well, I have to say, despite the sun and higher temperature. A nice breeze was blowing, particularly felt when I was out from under the tree cover. I felt rested and started off with my usual 1:1 min run intervals. A draw back of being rested (and absolutely incapable of managing my pace deliberately), I start too fast and then I’m barely able to keep forward momentum at the end. I’m learning, though. The one way I can control my pace is not to run. LOL I’m content running only 10-15% of my “run” distance and walking the rest, so long as my average pace is comfortable under a 17:30 to 18:00 min/mi. As I get more fit and my stamina increases, I’ll run more intervals and bump up my average pace. It’s called training for a reason, and I’m trying to stick as closely to the plan as I can.
I had one rest day before my next run, 6 miles this time. My ultra-runner friend, Gigi, was participating in an event at Ft. Richardson State Park on Saturday. She had an air conditioned cabin with four beds reserved for the weekend and invited me along. I jumped at the chance to go and the opportunity to run on new trails. I met her at the cabin late Friday evening. Driving into the sun that evening wasn’t fun, but I wasn’t able to leave any earlier because of existing appointments. Of course, the sun glare wasn’t helped by my dirty windows, which only get a “wash” when it rains. And we all know how often it’s been raining in Texas lately.
I started with the half mile trail directly behind our cabin. I needed to walk around the park road for a quarter mile or so to get to the trail head. The descent down to it from the back of the cabin wasn’t officially a trail and was steep and covered in slippery leaf litter. The nature trail was a “built” trail that provided a mostly easy path along the creek. You can see from the pictures above it was a mix of gravel/cement pathway, steps built up in the short bluffs along the creek bank, and single track dirt trail. Too short to make much of a dent in the 6 miles I needed, but beautiful.
A short hike along the park road again took me to the next trailhead on my route, Rumbling Spring Trail. Now this trail was one to reckon with. It tracked along the opposite bank of Lost Creek for a half mile itself. Very, very different from it’s neighbor on the other side. I commented in a Facebook post that I was channeling my former trail running coaches who typically responded to the question, “Is this the trail?” with the answer “Do you want it to be a trail?” The implication being it could be, and I certainly made up my own short “trails” that morning as I lost and found the original trail over and over again. This side of the creek was so technical and rugged, there wasn’t enough traffic to really “set” the trail, particularly where it crossed the jumbles of rocks.
Popped back out on the park road and a short walk took me to the Prickly Pear trailhead. Actually, I didn’t find the trailhead off the park road as I expected. Instead, I skirted a volleyball sand court and set off across a grassy field toward the aid station I could see setup on the Lost Creek Reservoir State Trailway. The trailway hugs the shores of the reservoir (which I’d thought was Lake Jacksboro) almost all the way around, connecting the northern area of the park. As a multi-use trail for hiking, biking, and horseback riding, it was wide, packed, and graveled. Following the shores of the reservoir, it was also fully exposed to the sun. Gigi was not a happy runner that day. The 25K course she ran was almost entirely on the trailway. “Flat, flat, flat,” she said. “And hot!”
I knew the aid station was setup on the trailway and that Prickly Pear crossed the trailway just below where the aid station was set up. I found it easily once I was near the trailway. It started as a wide band of mowed grass that extended away from the trailway. At 1.3 miles, the plan was after I’d covered it’s entire length, adding that distance to what I had, I’d run 2 miles out and back on the trailway to finish out the rest of the mileage I needed then return to the cabin along the park road. Uh-huh…
Prickly Pear was fully exposed, as you can see in the pictures below, and no way was I going to do 4 miles on the trailway. Instead, I reversed my direction on Prickly Pear when it’s loop reconnected close to the trailhead and ran it again. I wish I could upload the video I took of all the grasshoppers that would flush up and fly with each stride I took. It was like kicking along a stream and creating spray, except instead of water, it was grasshoppers flowing out in a fan in front of me.
I went back along the main Prickly Pear trail to the park road and back to Rumbling Spring and Lost Creek Nature Traila. I ended up over a mile short back at the trailhead start of the nature trail. I reversed direction again and covered the half-mile trail again. Reversed at the far end and headed back. I ultimately veered off at a mowed access point one or two tenths of a mile from the trailhead start and by the time I walked back along the park road to the cabin, I had 6.09 miles on my tracker.
After a quick shower, I waited for Gigi to finish. LOL It didn’t take her much longer to finish 15+ miles than it did me to finish 6. Neither one of us had the energy to do much more that afternoon. And while the plan for Sunday had been to pack up, then to explore the Lost Creek trails with Gigi, giving her something to remember about the park besides the flat, sunny trailway. 😀 Not sure what her enthusiasm level was that morning. Mine was low and she didn’t insist on checking out the additional trails. Thank my aching calves.
With the 3.25 miles I finished on Sunday while talking on the phone, I was less than 6 miles short of the weekly plan goal. That “run” was early evening beginning at 5:00 PM. Another little bit of deliberate heat training before the half. Good end to the week.
