Running at the Mountain!

Being the Tri-geek that I am, I read everything that I can get my hands on when it comes to swimming, biking, and running! In one article that I read about winter training, it mentioned focusing on cross-country to mix things up a bit AND work on leg strength. Makes sense to me as anytime I'm out on the trails and another runner passes me just breezing by and you know they're there often their legs are SUPER cut and built!

I've done my share of trail running considering that I live relatively in the woods :) However, it's been awhile since I've really been out to either the mountain or Blankets Creek so it was a very nice refreshing change!

I went to swim this morning and then met my training partner, Z over at Kennessaw Mountain for an easy 1:10 run. I decided going in that I wasn't going to try to stay in zone 2 because I just knew that that wasn't going to be possible. I'm just now starting to try to focus more on hills since it wasn't a huge push for IMFL!

Trail running is also supposed to be even a little bit more difficult than just doing hills because it requires more technicality dodging all the rocks and stumps and it requires a little bit more push since the trail surface is more forgiving than pavement. And though this did prove to be true, it was a great run! I felt like, ok, I'm finally starting to get somewhere!

Yes, there were quite a few people, just about everyone actually I think, that were running much faster than me. And Mike was nice enough to not completely drop me when I was huffing and puffing my way up the big hills! However, it felt good to push myself a little again!

So even though my time wasn't really all that great, and my heart rate wasn't really where it needed to be, I think I established my base, so that next time I head out there I will hopefully be in a little bit better shape!

Until next time...
K :)