Trails!

AM: Walked/Ran 3 miles.  Ran 1.5 miles of it at 9 min pace.  Felt decent.

PM: Biked 40 mins.  Sweaty

Run 2 miles - Walk 2 miles. 

Run 1.5 miles / Walk 1.5 miles.  That seems to be about all the body can handle running-wise for now.  Happy to be able to do that much, but not satisfied.

Mandatory day off - Every Thanksgiving for the last 2 years I have gotten injured.  Since I am technically injured that makes 3 years in a row.  Didn't want to make it worse...

Needed to feel some dirt and rocks underfoot so I went for a hike/run.  I headed up Saddleback Mountain (7475') (the one with the reflector towers) via Green.  I am out of shape.  My lungs and legs were burning.  45 mins and just under 3 miles to the tower.  From there I wanted to check out the trail over to the Beirdneau/Wind Caves Connector trail.  Turns out that the trail is not much of a trail.  Either that, or I missed lots of turns and wandered off it for most of it.  Good thing I was planning on a hike and not a run since the ridge was pretty rocky and would've been nearly impossible to run most of it.  I finally made it to the Beirdneau trail and was ready for a jog.  I decided it would be smarter to go down Green than the way I came.  Less steep = nicer on the back.  I couldn't contain myself completely and jogged down the 2 mile trail.  It was glorious.  I took a mile long break and walked once I was down to the road out of Green and then ran the final mile of singletrack back to the car.  Felt great.  Tired, but not sore.

T-2:47 (8.5 miles) 3 miles running - 5.5 hiking  3500' vert

8.5 awesome trail miles today.  I would guess 4 miles actually running with the rest hiking.  I went up Providence Trail to check out the new road and trail.  The whole second half of the trail is new now as the new road was routed where the trail was.  Its kind of a bummer as the road is a huge scar on the hillside now.  Makes the trail seem not so secluded.  At least its open now though. It was sure nice to get back to my old favorite route.  I went up to the quarry and wandered around the south end looking for a route up the mountain from there.   I got into a few crazy rock slides and nearly went down myself, but I survived but without finding a route south to Big Baldy.  My legs today were crazy sore from yesterday's hike/run.  Quads and butt were post marathon sore and now I am hobbling around the house like a gimp.  All worth it though to be outside and enjoy the mountains.  So far my back seems to be handling the hike/run thing just fine.  Its the atrophied muscles that need to be whipped back into shape.  No rush though, just enjoying the long weekend.

T-2:08 - 2300' vert