Saturday, September 17, 2011

Clear Your Head

After a less than stellar week and a crappy night’s sleep, I knew I had to find my way out on the trails to clear my head. Ken and I went up to Heil Ranch, which is just north of Boulder for an 8 mile trail run. The run gained about 1,000 feet and topped off around 6,600 feet. There was some minor climbing involved, but felt very moderate.

I wore my favorite trail running shoes, the Brooks Adrenaline ASR 7.

brooksasr

However, I have still yet to find a shoe that keeps me from biting it on the trail. I fall and stumble like your mama after too many tequila shots.

We climbed a rocky, technical, single track for about 2.5 miles:

bethheil1

bethheil1

Then there was another loop with an awesome overlook.

viewheil

bethviewheil

bethviewheil1

The run itself was pretty uneventful except for the bear scat. Unless Ken had berries for breakfast. The pile wasn’t steaming so I didn’t worry to much about it. Plus me and my running skirt could take a bear any day.

I rolled my ankle about 35,034 times, but this is nothing new for me on the trails.

There were a few mountain bikers out there – one dude look liked he was about to die and informed us he had “a rough night last night.” I counted my blessings that he didn’t puke on me.

Mostly it was just nice to be out of the elements, away from my home office and any other distractions. The beauty of being with someone for 18 years is that you don’t have to talk, you can just BE. Grunting, spitting and farting are allowed, of course.

kenheilrun

If you’ve never done runs on trails, you may not know how different it is from road running. If you are on technical trails, you have no choice but to go 1-3 minutes slower than your normal per mile pace. You have to dodge lots of rocks and roots, the up hills can be tough. Plus, getting your footing in gravel, sand, and dirt can slow you down too.

What did you do to get your hear rate going this weekend?

SUAR

26 comments:

  1. I contemplating doing a 10+ miler tomorrow that will have 3 on the trails... I love running on trails :)

    So far my heart rate has been involuntarily elevated by my kids bickering incessantly this morning. I'd have gone running to escape, but dad is out all day and CPS probably would frown on my leaving them to fend for themselves.

    Love these pictures :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. climbed 1154 steps up (plus lots of flat trail) to a former convent. ANd back down again. then down 500+ steps to the beach...and back up to the hotel.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I just wish it wasn't so ugly where you live...I'm mean, to HAVE to run on that trail. ;) My favorite times running have been with the hubs...we are now starting our HM training together for the Las Vegas RNR!


    Love your athleta shirt!

    ReplyDelete
  4. To get my hear rate going? I don't think of such things anymore with the tinnitus I've got going in both ears. I think of it as a little hiss on the soundtrack of my life.

    Oh, heart rate? You mean aside from trying to run, clenched, wondering if the bathroom will be unlocked? Nothing! I am officially tapering.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I ran 9.1 ..longest ever...really slow in your running world ...but a huge accomplishment in mine. ;-)

    LOVE seeing the CO pics...our relatives live in Littleton...their back yard are the "foothills" to the Rockies. When visiting we always take a hike with the family...so fun, peaceful (no tech. stuff),and the views are great.

    Except our last hike was suppose to be a quick 2 miler..after taking the wrong trail we ended up doing a tad over 6 miles. We didn't pack water, a phone, food, nothing! We were exhausted and hot..did I mention it was about 80 ish too...no animal sightings til the very end when a lovely long yellow spotted snake crossed our path...WOA never knew how much energy I could muster up by a snake crossing my path..yikes!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bears shit in pebbles? Who would have thought?

    This morning was the most interesting run ever. I had to go out and run in Z1-Z2 and then the final 5-8 miles at my goal pace for my A race.

    The run was to be 2.5 hours.

    I had a hard time figuring out what my A race was to be. Two weeks at US Open Championships or 70.3 Longhorn.

    No bear shit thought.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Mmmmmm...easy to eat berries...
    For me I had my 5th straight weekend with a 20 mile (or more) run. I ended up with 20 @ a 9:42 pace, my fastest ever pace for a run over 13.1. Now I can taper for a 50k in two weeks! I'm looking forward to that race and also to running just to run and not for a specific race. Though, my coach did create the most awesomest plan ever!

    ReplyDelete
  8. I ran 4 miles and then coached 6 , 7 year old girls in soccer. Its not the girls that get my heart rate up its the crazy parents. The girls are amazing and so fun.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Funny, I think the last time I saw bear poo on the trail it was also in Boulder. (But that was 2 years ago... not so many bears live at the beach in FL.)

    My day's heart-pumping/calorie-burning also involved sh** in the great outdoors! Picking it up, in fact! (It's International Coastal Cleanup Day: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14084743334 -- and to be honest, I didn't pick up any poo, just 3 garbage bags full of other crap. Ick.)

    ReplyDelete
  10. 22Miles in the fog and drizzle. Nice change from our recent heat wave. Ran half trail, half road...ALONE (I don't play well with others)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I LOVE trail running! Every week I like to run parts of a trail near work to change it up a bit. Today was a rest day but tomorrow I will be tackling 21K. Its cut back week in my marathon training :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love trail running, but I've pretty much avoided it b/c of IMAZ training and I don't want to get injured! BUT, once IMAZ is over, I'd really like to get into it more!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I ran a 22K trail race today. It was my first one and I agree it's a lot different than road running.
    I tripped and fell three times. The last time was when I was walking up a hilly section (I was hunched over and pushing on my quads like I saw Kilian Jornet do in a video I saw on solomom.com) when I tripped over a root/rock/whatever and fell on my right shoulder. I never even had any time to put a hand out to catch my fall.
    Anyway, my shoulder is a touch sore tonight. I think it's probably just some bruising or strained muscles or something. gonna keep an eye on it though.
    I really enjoyed the trail race but my legs are trashed. Moreso than when running on roads.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I don't even bring a Garmin when I trail run, no purpose other than to mark distance b/c my pace will never compete to that of the road. Looks like a fantastic morning and I think nothing feels more alive than a nice, cool trail run! :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Ah, good choice. Also good is Walker Ranch and nearly anything around Chatuaqua.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I did twelve miles this morning...my "taper" before marathon (do you need to taper when training is a scant 4 weeks???).

    ReplyDelete
  17. Ran my second run last night with hubby - training for a relay race 10/1. Running with someone you can fart, spit, and totally suck wind with is pretty cool. ;) Hope you got your head cleared!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Mmm trail runs. My fav for sure. I've yet to run that loop/trail you guys ran, but it looks awesome! PS I swore I saw you riding your bike past me today while I was running on Jay towards the boulder res today. So it was either you or your twin.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Very cool. I love trail running. For heart rate this weekend (so far) was 25 miles on the bike and Coastal Cleanup this morning!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Nice post today. I ran 24 today with 3700 feet of climbing and am planning on 18 tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I had a tough 25k for my HR elevator this weekend. Tough because I haven't gone much over 20k lately and because my hip stopped playing nice about 4k from the end.

    ReplyDelete
  22. 15k race this morning, totally boring course but felt good in the crisp Fall-like air.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hubby and I ran the Mt. Diablo trail half, 3420 ft elevation gain.
    It was either going up, or down, no flat, mostly fire road w/some technical single track thrown in at the top.
    Good times!!

    ReplyDelete
  24. What a beautiful state you live in. I'm jealous! The view! The trails - so gorgeous.

    I went for my first 20 mile run since Boston last April. Took it slow, no pressure, just letting the muscles accept the first 20 of four or five in the next 2 months.

    ReplyDelete