Notes
Well, I got my hills worth today.
Not much rain today, so I was confident about doing some trails.. even though this trails description literally said it's very wet and muddy after rain. This was an 8-mile loop, and after 1 mile in 11min, I started wondering if this would be a bigger day than anticipated if this was 8 GPS miles.
The trail reminded me of my only Superior Spring trail race: lots of ups and downs, technical footing (more roots than rocks here), and plenty of wet spots.
After several solid climbs and learning to follow the red marks on trees, I was started to wish for some flatter terrain. I got my wish in the form of 2 miles through mud and streams, so not a great tradeoff. I also got couldn't find my trail for a few minutes. When I finally did, I was definitely wondering about this loop. I was at 5 miles and if I took a wrong turn, I'd be looking at a 2-hour run.
My fears were somewhat put to rest as I crossed a road that I knew I would (not that I saw a street name, but I was hopeful). It did end up being the same road I had parked at. I considered just running back to the car but felt confident in my red marks and my general sense of direction that I was doing a loop. And while I would be proven correct, my reward was a 500ft climb, the longest of the day.
At 6.5, I finally saw my first map at a T intersection. I immediately turned left, but only saw white marks on trees now, not my comforting red marks. I turned back to check out the map more... and I got more confused. This loop did not look like the one I was doing. I eventually figured out that it was drawn in reverse orientation, aka, East was on the left, and West was on the right. I returned to the white marked trail and, despite being 12 more minutes, the end seemed to come fast and with more reassurance every minute. Some strides and a finish to a lovely trail. 1700ft elevation gain.
Side note for injury, this is certainly killing my left achilles more. I'm justifying it and 1 more planned trail run since I imagine my runs will be very flat for the next month or so. Still, might take a couple of days off this weekend to see how it heals.