A Few More Steps In The Right Direction

Pretty solid day of training today with a 1hr run and 2hr of mtn biking. This is not huge by any means, but it was my first 'brick' (back to back disciplines) workout in as long as I can remember and in and of itself that felt great!

I started the day off with an early morning run on the Alice Lake trail system of Squamish. The area is a bit higher than town and hence holds snow longer than most other trail networks. The run was a mix of completely clear and snow covered but I did get to run one of my absolute favorite trails of all time, 'Credit Line'.

If I'm ever having an off week for running or training I usually drag my ass onto Credit Line and bomb down it to feel better about myself! I love technical steep trails and this meets both those criteria. I believe you could run it just as fast as you could bike it, but it's the fast turn over and quick foot placements that I love. There is nothing else that can go through your mind except where your next step needs to go so as to prevent you from eating dirt or hugging a tree with your teeth.

I started off around the Four Lakes trail system and the funny thing was that I felt really good out there. I ran harder than I remember running this route in a long, long time, and flew up all of the hills. By the time I hit Credit Line I truly believed that I was on pace to P.R. this loop, but without a watch on my wrist it was all just a guessing game. I felt like I was flying on the trail and powered effortlessly over the few climbs that are involved (seven pounds less will do that I guess!). By the time I was spit out onto 'Jack's Trail' I decided I should stop and stretch. I may have been getting ahead of myself a little as I am definitely sore here tonight, but the trails got the best of me, I couldn't resist feeling like an actual trail runner again!

From there it was off to Corsa Cycles (the best bike shop in Squamish) to pick up my brand new Specialized Epic mountain bike...schweeeetness!! A two hour ride, climbing up to the snow line on numerous different routes ensued before I called it a day and went about tackling some long overdue errands and chores, such as cleaning my stanky doggie smelling car for the first time in six months...I'm a busy guy, things get ranked in order of necessity, and without a woman in my life I don't get any flack for stuff like this, which is obviously not always a good thing!!

I put in a good stretching session tonight, will hit up the road bike tomorrow and am then off to Chuckanut for Saturday. Still uncertain as to if I'll even make it through the entire run, but either way it'll be good to catch up with a lot of familiar faces!

GR