Notes
A chilly 60degrees on this depressing day. Thankfully I had reason to be saved, the David Cricket McKay as in town, and I was happy to show off Des Moines trails (even if half of the run was in the dark). Even better, he was willing to do a workout with me (burn off some steam and what not).
Hazard joined us for a 4 mile warmup (sorry arlo), which went by very quickly as we did a loop of Rollercoaster/Hillside. My plan was 3 x 8min tempos, starting on the road, then switching to trails (sort of a LHF simulator). The 1st tempo started on a uphill, and I probably should have forced the pace more. Then most of this piece was downhill, which got the pace amped up quite a bit. Still felt great though, as Cricket and I chatted most of the time (I mostly set the pace, though he pushed it towards the end).
With a quick jaunt across the railroad bridge (where Cricket ruined my steeplechase theory) for a well-timed 3min recovery, we were ready for the mile+ loop of Squirrel's Nest, a very flat and smooth trail. I led and had a great time rolling through the trails; not quite as fast as the road, but it felt great.
Back across the bridge, and the final piece was trails again, but this time very technical (hills and turns). It was also finally time to turn the headlamps on as nightfall came fast. It would have been nice to have a better headlamp, but I survived (with a few lucky close calls). This piece was obviously slower, the uphills were difficult, and the downhills were reckless. But overall it still was a very good workout. Easy to have motivation when you've got company, especially company that you're hoping is maybe working harder than a normal run.
2 mile cooldown. Explored the lake too (huge tadpoles in the muck). Could have kept running but we'll save some for tomorrow.