This weekend, the training plan dictated 18 miles on Saturday and 8 more on Sunday. Luckily, this winter has been abnormally dry so far and the rain continued to hold off, leaving the trails dry and very runnable.
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| Running down the Black Hills trail. |
On Saturday, we chose to run our 18 mile long run in Los Vaqueros Watershed since we enjoyed it so much last time. The sky was clear and the temperature reached 60 degrees; a pleasant running day. We carefully planned out our nutrition for the day, including Cytomax and some Hammer products that we wanted to test. In order to complete all 18 miles, we ran through the Watershed all the way into Morgan Territory and back. We saw one coyote when we started off early in the morning, and afterward saw a bunch of downy calves that followed us down the trail for a bit. It was a long, tough run with over 4k feet of elevation, and I couldn't help but feel bummed when I saw the parking lot peek over the last hill... I didn't want it to end.
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| Windmills in the morning light. |
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| Some friendly company on the trail. |
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| The toughest climb of the run. |
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| 4k+ feet of climb with two tough "fangs" | |
On Sunday, we ran 8 chilly, windy miles in Brushy Peak Regional Preserve and were almost blown off of the trail. Dust and small pebbles blew into our faces, making it hard to enjoy the scenery. (I did manage to take a few pictures of Burnout Bear, though.) The unpleasant weather helped distract us from our tired legs, though, and we pushed through it!
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| Early in the run - looking up at Brushy Peak. |
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| A herd of cows trying to shelter from the wind on the left. |
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| View of the windmill covered hills from the top of Brushy Peak. |
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| Brushy Peak elevation profile. |
Crazy terrain for my eastern eyes! It is so devoid of trees! You must feel like you are running on top of the world.
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