Long Point on 7/14/12

Remember the storm a few Saturdays ago (7/14), when Fayetteville lost power for a little bit? I was out running, and this is probably the only picture I got to take before it started raining on me and my camera lens became too wet to take clear pictures. 

Long Point, 7/14/12.

Craig Branch Trail

Distance: 2.4 miles
Difficulty Rating: Moderate

Craig Branch Trail, an administrative access road, starts from Kaymoor Top and descends the Gorge until it dumps you onto Kaymoor Trail. It is short, wide, and graveled, so it's not very technical. Recently, it has become the backbone of the Arrowhead Trail System, which will not be covered in this post. By itself, Craig Branch Trail offers little unless you want a fast, easy hill to run down (and a bear to run back up, in some parts). It is useful to use as an add-on to your route for a couple extra miles with some steep hill work, or it could be used as an out-and-back.

Nameless update

First, it's hard to do anything profitable when you're in the same room with my fiance's vegan blueberry cobbler (actually, she ran out of almond milk, so she had to cheat and use the skim milk she had in her fridge--so not vegan this time).

Second, I've almost completely decided to register for the 50k race that is part of the West Virginia Trilogy. A little nervous about the fact that it's at the highest elevated area of West Virginia, but the time limit for finishing the 50k is by 10.5 hours. I'm pretty sure I can hike 50k in less than 10.5 hours. Therefore, I figure if it's too bad, I'll just walk for a while. No problem. Besides, I've finished my first week (third week on the training schedule) of training, and I have a good feeling about the race. Just have to keep making time to run and stay injury-free!

Third, there are few things as fun as trail running in a torrential downpour. Emily and I went out to the Gorge last Saturday (July 14) and ran one of my favorite medium training routes--Long Point Trail to Kaymoor Top via Fayetteville Trail, down Kaymoor Miners onto Kaymoor Trail, to and then up Craig Branch Trail back to Kaymoor Top, then back to Long Point Trail via Butcher Branch Trail. I saw a sweet (and very clean and wet) box turtle on Craig Branch Trail. I tried taking nice pictures of Craig Branch Trail (and the turtle), but the rain was so crazy and the light dim that the camera mostly shot blurry or very wet-looking pictures. I'm still planning on putting them up and doing a short review of Craig Branch Trail as soon as I get the pictures off Emily's phone. Little tasks like that can take me days to get around to, sometimes. Especially this week, since I'm pretty swamped with work and helping out at my church's VBS. Still, it shouldn't take long to write about Craig Branch Trail; it's not very long or spectacularly noteworthy, other than it's a good, pretty steep add-on to make a good workout out of your run. Met some bikers, too. Asked me how long it was to Cunard from the place where Craig Branch Trail hits Kaymoor Trail. I pulled out my map and tried to help them; I'm not great at estimating distances on those things. I hope I helped them. I'm sure they hit it eventually.

I keep thinking there was something important I had to say, but I guess there isn't. I'm totally psyched for this race in October now. I hope that it's not full when I get paid (I still haven't registered since I don't have money for the fee yet :P).

My Inov-8s are still doing great. I love them...still not as grippy as my old Sportivas, but I don't expect them to ever be. No problem. I also need a new hydration pack before too long...

Probably should get ready for bed. Those kids at VBS wore me out today. Maybe they're the ones who should be running this 50k. Could have been the caving group at work, too.

I still haven't remembered what that important thing was that I wanted to say. Peace.

Preparing for first 50k! (and disappointing news)

So, I guess you could say I've OFFICIALLY began a set training schedule in order to work up to 50k shape. Since my family lives near Chattanooga, I wanted to try to prepare for the Rock/Creek StumpJump 50k. On Rock/Creek's blog, they actually have a sample training schedule you can use to train for your first 50k. They also recently (late May of this year) put up a video for people like me who have never ran a 50k before. 

Training for your First Trail 50K with Matt Sims from Rock/Creek on Vimeo.

Sadly, I recently found out that the 50k registration for the StumpJump is full :( But I figured I'd still try out their training schedule--I looked at the beginning of this week (the second week in July), but I decided to skip straight to Week 3 on the schedule. Already I'm feeling pretty confident, because going out running for an hour is a piece of cake for me--even though I haven't run this regularly in a long time. It turns out that I'm in better shape than I thought. It's hard for me to keep myself from skipping to August, but I know I need to let my body adjust to a lot of small runs during the week before I start doing longer runs consistently. Sometimes it takes more discipline for me to not go as much as I think I could. In high school, I would often injure myself from overtraining. These days, I'm not as competitive, but sometimes it comes back up in me and I think I have to push until my body gives out. I just have to have fun here. Just relax and enjoy the easy weeks while they last :D I'm looking forward to the 3.5 hour runs, though.

Even though the StumpJump is full, I'm still going to follow the schedule so that I'll at least be able to run a 50k. And I've also learned to register for popular events early. Now I just have to find a 50k somewhere near me happening in October...or get on the StumpJump waiting list.