Slowly Getting Faster

Avenue Twins from the Capital.  I felt like crap today.  Not sure what it is although I think it's related to something I ate last night. Stomach not feeling well most of the way up and all the way down.  Still, not too shabby of a time for not feeling good. 1:45:54 seconds, average of 11:09 per mile. Last time I went this way I managed 30 seconds a mile faster, but I was 2 miles shorter and those are the miles up to and back from the top of the peaks. So, all in all I think this was a good training effort even if I did/do feel like crap.  I hope this is gone tomorrow. 

This is not a good training run.  I received some bad news today and decided that I should take it out on the trail.  I also decided I should hit a trail I haven't done but have wanted to do for a while, Baer Canyon.  I knew going into this run that it was a steep run and the most of the run would actually probably be a walk, but what I didn't know is that the trail is beyond technical, it is ridiculous.

 It was pretty rocky heading up to the second stream crossing but it was still runnable in most places.  If you make it past the second stream crossing without soaking your feet, which I managed on the way up but not on the way back down, then the trail is even decent from that point up to the third stream crossing.  Both the second and the third stream crossings were fairly treacherous. Once you make it across the third stream crossing the trail is decent for about 200 feet then it pretty much just turns and goes straight up the mountain. Not only is it very steep at that point but the trail is over grown and very rocky. There are places that the grade isn't too bad but I still couldn't run just because of the conditions of the trail. I wanted to take this all the way to Skyline Drive but I lost the trail at 2.6 miles in and decided to turn back rather than keep post holing my way through the snow while I searched for it. My Garmin said that the elevation gain was 2,600+ until I turned off the the auto correct; then it said the elevation gain was closer to 2,900.  I split the difference at 2,700 because it seemed steeper than that and because the auto correct assigns an elevation to a location based on a geodetic reading that has been actually taken by someone.  Since I very seriously doubt anyone has been up that trail with the equipment necessary to take that reading I figured it was reasonable to assume that the auto correct was probably not 100% correct. 

I don't think I will be doing that trail again any time soon.  It seems like I can get all the elevation training I need on much better trails that will actually allow me to push my limits rather than carefully walk.  

No running today because I didn't have enough time and I seem to have tweeked my back.  I hope the back tweek goes away soon, I don't want another extended down time.