Trail run around Highland Park
Today I went on the first trail run of the season. I love running trails; I find it a lot easier to fall into the rhythm and the moment of running on trails. Trails also tend to be shadier and cooler, which helps — the one place I had trouble on this run was a steep, unshaded, uphill on tarmac.
I’ve been using a combination of the PodRunner podcast and a couple apps to keep track of my runs and to challenge me a bit. I’m using the Run10K app, which lets me control the music from it; I’m using PodRunner mixes in the mid-150s bpm range. Today was “Ebb and Flow”, which I find really great for putting me in a floaty, zen running mode. It’s mellow but not too mellow, and it keeps me going without getting into my head — some mixes I end up listening to, rather than letting them go through me, and if I’m listening I never really get into the run. I also use RunKeeper, to track my route and pace and record the run. It’s flawed but so far it’s the best thing I’ve found.
It was a sunny, warm day, and Nat wrangled the kids so that I could run by myself. When I have either one of them, I stick to the roads — the jogging strollers can’t handle the trails around here. I figured that, the way the weather has been, the high trails were likely to be dry, and possibly the lower ones, near Carnegie Lake, as well. I was in luck; everything was dry except for a few patches on the trail behind the lake, easily jumped. I felt…really good, this run. I didn’t want it to end; if I’d had the time, I probably would have kept running. When I hit my designated cooldown period, I kept running for a big chunk of it, instead of dropping to a walk.
I love runs like that.
