Saturday, June 20th

Plan: 10 miles with hills
Actual: 10 miles with lots of hills ~ 1:28:40

The schedule called for 10 miles with hills, but my plan was to do about 13 miles on a trail up in the mountains. I probably could've followed through with my plan if it weren't for a few mishaps in the morning...

First of all I had a little bit of car trouble. Spent about 25 minutes fixing the issue. Second, it took me about 40 minutes to find the dirt road that leads to the trailhead I was after. A few miles into the trek down the dirt road, I hit a spot of snow about 2 1/2 feet deep and there was no way I could get my car through. Argghh! Thus, I never even made it to the trailhead. I was also in a bit of a time crunch so I had to cut my run short just a bit.

What I ended up doing was just running on the dirt road I was on. Was a bit more grueling than I had anticipated though (especially running on only 3 hours of sleep the night before). I took 5 miles up and 5 miles back. I would estimate that 80% of that first leg was uphill. Some steep, some grudual. But that also meant that 80% of the way back was downhill which was quite nice!

This was my first experience running more than a mile or two up in the mountains. It was an awesome experience for me! Didn't even bother using headphones since I was engulfed in the sights & sounds of nature. Saw a few deer, heard a symphony of frogs in a marsh I passed through, and saw some amazing views along the way. My legs felt pretty good throughout, and not once did I feel like I was obligated to get the miles in. Loved the experience and can't wait to do it again!!!