Plethora of New Trails

Last Thursday Shane and I drove out to the Forest to chill out and find new trails. We came across the Shawnee State Forest Horse Camp while out there. It is on Forest Road #4, right by Bear Creek Lake. The name of the pond inspired us to go check out this area and this could have been the biggest find ever for me! We drove around the area and there were many trucks with horse trailers on the back, and many horses with people walking around. We saw a few different bridle trails, ones that were actually single-track (wide enough for a horse).

Today, Corey, Shane, and I headed out there to run. The trails proved to be too muddy to run on due to all the rain and horse usage, the trail was a mess! So, we decided to run up Forest Road #6, and it was hilly! There were three huge hills to climb, so that means six total since we went out and back. Our legs were heavy due to the workout yesterday, which I will address later, but we still ran at a nice pace, even came back a minute and a half quicker. While runner out this gravel road, I was amazed! I saw at least 5 different trail heads off to the side! There could have been more but I can't remember all of them. This was the trail heaven of the Forest! This made me really happy and I can not wait to hit these up. Seems like very well maintained since a lot of horses travel these. Also, some trails looked to be hilly and some flat, so there is some diversity.

This is all on the North side of 125. There is still even more ground to cover on the South side of 125. For now, I am overwhelmed at the amount of trails I need to explore. I need to study the map and see some nice routes to take. I love maps, they are fun to look at and study.

About this workout I said I would get to. Yesterday we did 1 mile hard, 12 x 400 hard, and 1 mile hard out at our course. This is a very tough workout that mixes short with long, getting the turnover to its max and without much rest, pound out a challenging mile. It started to rain on the drive out there and continued to rain during the workout. The rain made the last mile very difficult and the 400's were also very slick. Hickey even fell and others that wore flats were slipping everywhere. I wore spikes and felt great, even though the ground sank with each step. This is how it went:

1 Mile: 4:46, 5 Minute Rest w/ 2.5 min jog
400: 68 1:10 jog/1:41
400: 70 1:10 jog/1:47
400: 68 1:10 jog/1:43
400: 67 1:10 jog/1:41
400: 68 1:10 jog/1:47
400: 67 1:10 jog/1:48
400: 67 1:10 jog/1:44
400: 68 1:10 jog/1:49
400: 67 1:10 jog/1:48
400: 67 1:10 jog/1:45
400: 67 1:10 jog/1:47
400: 67, 5 Minute Rest w/ 2.5 min. jog
1 Mile: 4:56, Finished!

I was very, very pleased with this. Especially on the 400's where I felt like I could pick up the velocity at any moment I decided too. After getting into a few, I wanted to keep lowering my time and I finished really strong. Than the last mile, I ran very strong on the slick mud (first mile of course, the opposite way). My legs felt great yesterday but today they were super heavy on the run. It was a good feeling, I can tell I was doing work. All we have Friday is our 2 mile time trial. I feel a nice PR and would like to run 9:30 or under. I ran 9:35 earlier this season and that was with 3 mile reps to follow.

The best is yet to come this season, I can't wait. The rankings came out today and we stayed the same, ranked #6. Aquinas who beat us by one point moved from 7th to 3rd. Nice to know we only lost to the 3rd ranked team by one point. Also, Malone isn't ranked 1st for the first time in 29 consecutive weeks, Southern Oregon passed them.
http://naia.cstv.com/sports/m-xc/spec-rel/102809aac.html

Can't wait for whats to come.....

WMO