Trail thoughts

1) One thing I love about running trails is the separation it gives me from everything else that is always around: mechanical noise, digital noise, cars, and so forth. I seldom hear other people; they are typically in ones or twos, rarely in large groups making all kinds of chatter. Occasionally mountainbikers will rattle by, singles or pairs or groups, but even on busy days, they are usually well-spaced. Running on paved paths in parks or at roadsides gets to be a drag, with the monotony of the same asphalt, the same scenery, the other users taking up the width of the path, the cars droning by. While I am enjoying the act of running in these places, I find myself often just wanting to get the run done so that I can get away from the other people, the cars, and get done with the tedium of those parks -- which leads me to want to run faster than I need to. The trails give me an escape from all that, and I can run actually easy and refresh my mind running through woods and hayfields that are familiar yet always changing. It's a quiet that's filled with glorious sounds of birds, small mammals scuffling through leaves and underbrush, wind in branches overhead, the millrace rushing over rocks and under footbridges. I can monitor my breathing and enjoy the sound of my feet thumping the earth. I am a small dust mote on its face, but I am here, it can feel me as I share its beauties in the middle of a busy patch of the east coast. Whenever I see people out there wearing headphones, I pity them. Why shut all that out? If you're just going to listen to music or whatever, you might as well be on the treadmill, because you're missing 90% of what makes being outside under the trees and sky so wonderful.

2) I was around mile 4.5 of my easy run on Wednesday when I came across a woman placing little blue flags at the side of the trail, and she told me about a trail race happening in Middle Run this weekend, a 5K and a 10K. I was interested, and was thinking about it about a mile later: if I did participate, would I run the 5K or the 10K? I have a pretty intense and long workout scheduled for Sunday, so maybe I should rule out the 10K, but whenever I am paying for a race that has a longer option, I usually like to get more miles for my money. $30 for a trail 5K seemed like a lot; $10 per mile? But a shorter race would be less stress on my legs. I waffled, and also wondered if I wanted to risk injury trying to run fast and hard on trails I have not run fast and hard on for a long time (trail running is my recovery running, now). I could easily see myself face-planting going breakneck down some hill or going too fast to land my feet right among roots.

And while I was considering the injury possibility, I tripped and fell. It took a couple stumbling strides for me to give up trying to recover from the trip, and I went down on the side of my lower left leg. It's exactly where I fell a few weeks ago, but this time I was not wearing long pants and mittens (yay 60F!), so instead of just bruising up, I was also quite scratched. It's been a couple days and my hands and leg still sting when hit with hot water.

I guess if I fall while I am not running hard at all, worrying about falling while running fast isn't going to be a good enough reason to not run this trail race this weekend. I'm guessing I'd actually probably be less likely to fall while racing because I would be concentrating on it, and when I'm running easy it's easier to get distracted while my brain is concentrating on thoughts instead of on making sure I pick up my feet.

In the end, I've decided not to run the trail race, either the 5K or the 10K, this weekend because I ran a tough tempo last night and I think it's better to take Saturday easy to recover ahead of the lengthy MP run I have on the docket for Sunday. I'm interested in trail racing sometime in the future, but it's just not fitting in to my schedule right now. I have the Triple Crown trail series on my maybe race card (April 30), but it turns out I'm not going to be in Delaware that weekend -- I'm going to be in Iowa City, where another (non-trail) possibility has cropped up.

Trail treat

In the interest of time, I do much of my running on paved surfaces. In the winter, as a person who runs after work, this is also done out of necessity. In the summer and fall, when daylight lingers late into the evening, I am able to spend more of my running time on the trails. I very much enjoy running in the woods and across the hayfields between them around here, but the time required to cover a particular distance is always significantly longer than if I do that same distance on paved paths or roads -- never mind the way my Garmin struggles with accuracy under treecover. When the miles get long, I tend to stay away from the trails.

In the winter, my opportunities to run during daylight occur chiefly on the weekends, unless I have magical time off during the work week. I've been trying to maintain Sundays as "long run" days (right now, ~10 miles) which I do on paved surfaces, and Saturdays are always easy recovery days. As long as the weather permits, I prefer to do those on the trails. I simply cannot worry about pace in that environment, so I do not clock-watch and run entirely based on effort, which I keep on the very comfortable side of comfortable. Because it's once-a-week at best right now, trail running has started to feel like a luxurious treat. It is satisfying to cover my distance under the bare tree limbs, navigating roots and rocks partly hidden by leaves; I have to focus my mind on what I'm doing a great deal more than when I'm out turning on the mental treadmill on the path around the park or reservoir. I can listen to more than the tappy-tap of my shoes and the sound of my breathing, which helps me to let go of pace concerns. There is trickling from streams, there is a variety of bird noise, the occasional crashing through underbrush of a deer. The ding! alerting me to a mountainbiker approaching and a "hello" from a hiker. Sometimes I lose focus and end up struggling to stay upright as gravity wants to pull me down after stubbing my foot on a root, or I end up eating the trail, hoping I don't bang up a critical limb as I land. It's an altogether different running experience that I seem to take for granted during the summer months.

It was chilly today, but very sunny and the trails were moderately populated as I ran on them for an hour. It's been a few weeks since I last went through there, so it felt especially liberating to roll up and down those hills. Recent rain had some areas in a state akin to tar pits, but they were small enough to stretch a stride over. There were a few yards in a sheltered spot, always away from direct sunlight, where the muddy track was still frosty and stiff from overnight freezing. It's been a warm winter, only lately dipping to "normal" temperatures.

I could have run longer, but 1) no need to overdo it with tomorrow's "long run" on deck, and 2) there were other afternoon activities to consider. The experience today was exceptionally satisfying, even though I had to wear long pants. I'll keep today's run in mind when a less-pleasant winter day arises.