Thursday, December 18, 2014

After a couple months of minimal running, an ice storm and a backpacking trip to the Grand Canyon, I'm finally starting to get running again.  The first week back was mostly slow running but all in all I felt good.  There was definitely a new feeling in the legs when I got back; nothing was bothersome and I didn't feel like I was guarding against injury.  I did built up slow but there was definitely a new freedom in my stride.
The next week or two was mostly the same but with a scattering of really good runs.  Every run felt like an improvement to some extent but there was definitely a few that felt as if everything was back to normal.  Over the past week I have gotten in a couple easy runs around 3 hours and a few hour long pushes up McCulloch Peak at a pretty solid pace.
The break was a little frustrating at times, but mostly gave me a chance to recover, a good break from racing, and some time to look back at this year's running and learn from my mistakes.  Next year will probably bring more breaks from specific training but also some small adjustments to my race preparation.  But for now, I just happy to get out running.
Climbing up through ice covered trees

The sun breaking through just below McCulloch Peak

Almost up
Those Dimple pictures I put up earlier are from the day before.  Not much came down then but after another day of freezing rain the trees loaded up with some ice and started popping.  I headed up McCulloch for an easy run was accompanied by breaking trees and branches the whole climb.  The road allowed me to keep my head up the whole time to watch out for limbs, and fortunately nothing came close to me on my run.
The new thinning on McCulloch

Lookout Mountain poking through the trees
Mother Nature's thinning
Some trails took a hit from the ice
Some bigger trees down in the maze
Looking out toward Mary's Peak from Dimple
A big tree hanging over Dan's Trail
All in all, a lot of wreckage on the trails and some different views, but its great to be out and enjoying what nature has to offer.  Hopefully I will cover some more ground in the coming weeks and slowly get back into shape for Orcas Island 50K in February.