I love me some Trail-Runnin'!

This was a fairly routine week of runs, rides and a swim.  I’m not going to go into huge detail, but here’s a quick recap.  Mind you, Matt woke up for his workouts with me each and every morning – this is a FIRST in a long time.  I am proud of him.  He’s becoming incredibly fit because of his consistency – which also means he’s wiping the earth’s floor with me each and every time we hit the trail or the road. 

So, Monday we rode easy.  After our HUGE effort on the bike on Sunday, it was nice to simply pedal away as if nothing mattered. 

Tuesday, we met at the trailhead to the Desert Classic at 5am for a 4 mile run.  We watched the sun rise over South Mtn and gabbed the whole way about several of our work projects.

Wednesday, Matt found a new hill on which to do hill repeats on the bike.  It was steep and fantastically hard.  After three times up and around, we called it a day.  Total mileage was around 15-16 miles, so it was a good workout for a Wednesday morning. 

My new jersey...its pretty sweet!

Much to my surprise, Matt met me again at the trailhead for a 6 mile run on the beautiful Desert Classic trail.  He pulled ahead about a ½ mile into the run, and as much as I tried to catch him – it was like a rabbit following a carrot for the next 5 miles.  I could see him or smell his deodorant for the majority of the route, but I never caught him.  I was not disappointed in my times – and I think Matt hit a PR for his 6 miles.  Another testament to becoming quite the athlete - consistency.  (Let’s see how long he can keep this up with me on his tail.)

On Thursday morning, we both brought our bikes in for some minor repairs.  Matt was dropping his chain more often than not and my shifting was out of whack.  Turns out I needed new cables.  This simply meant that our bikes were in the shop for what would have been a Friday morning ride.  So, I hit the gym alone and pushed out a 1500 meter swim.  In the two weeks I was out of the gym-pool, they resurfaced the indoor lap pool.  It was good and bad.  No longer could I see the mucky stains along the bottom, but when I hit the wall to turn around, they’d strategically placed several SLICK tiles in the midst of the back-wall, and my foot slid right off the tile giving me NO leverage or distance.  I almost threw out my hip.  It only took a couple of laps for it to dawn on me to stay to the right or the left of the lane to avoid the slick tiles.  My right hip is still a little wonky because of it.

We both took Saturday off in an effort to prepare our bodies for a tough trail run on Sunday morning. 

My alarm awakened me at 3:45am.  Matt was picking me up at 4:15am for our 40 minute drive out to the Usery Mountains, again.  This time he wanted me to try to run the Pass Mountain trail.  He detailed it as a 7.1 mile route with HUGE elevation climbs for the first 4 miles.  Then a nice rolling descent to the base of the mountain.

Shortly after 5am, we were headed out on the trail.  The first couple of miles were lovely – albeit narrow and far larger rock formations to hop over (and around) than on the trails of South Mountain.  Matt pulled ahead immediately, and I just followed the white shirt for miles.  I tried to keep him in my sights, but there were occasions where looking up would have been quite a detriment, so I lost him for a bit.  At the second mile, the elevation began to change and we were clearly headed up – up – up.  This path became quite narrow and the rock formations even steeper and more dangerous.  I just let Matt vanish so that I could focus on my foot work.  He knew the route – and this meant he could run it with less trepidation than I. 

At the 3 mile mark I found myself pleased that I’d thought to bring my handheld water bottle, as I was climbing and climbing.  There were moments in the fourth mile where I literally thought my heart was going to come out of my chest, as I maneuvered my way through very narrow passages along fairly steep drops (along the mountainside).  My mother would have been displeased.  Occasionally I would see Matt in one of the switchbacks along the side of the mountain.  He waited for me just beyond the ½ way mark at the very steepest section of the run.  As we both stood there we could see for miles and miles.  The city and world was beneath us.  But, after about a minute, Matt uttered, “You ready to finish this?”  All I could do was nod, as he darted away from me again. 

I came around a bend relatively close to one of the higher sections of the run and could see Matt waiting for me.  He knew how important it would be to occasionally take in the scenery, so I figured he was waiting for me to show me nature’s beauty.  Instead, I realized he was taking video footage of me with the gorgeous sun rise over the mountains in the backdrop.  How cool to be able to relive it, over and over. 

As he pulled away from me, again, the path became very narrow.  The next 2.5 miles were filled with the smells of the desert mountain floor and the beauty of the rolling mountains around us.  Next time I will be able to look up a lot more.

While those last few miles were mostly downhill, there were plenty of steep washes to come in and out of – and my legs were feeling exhausted with each and every one.  And, as the path finally flattened out, I could see Matt waiting for me at the end – camera poised in my direction. 

It was certainly the hardest trail run I have ever done – and it made the Desert Classic look like child’s play.  7.6 miles took me 1:31 – that should explain JUST how difficult it was.  I was anticipating 1:15-1:20.  I am already ready to try to beat it, though – now that I know what to anticipate. 

If you click on the pic -- you can see little me in the distance.

We left the Usery Mountain Park and eventually hit the freeway.  As we did, Matt and I looked over our shoulders and Matt said, “we just went around that entire thing,” gesturing to this huge mountain in the backdrop.  What an amazing feeling!

“Please, sir.  I want some more!”

Although, this is a "snagged" shot, I did buy it.  Thought this was one of my cooler finishing photos from Pat's Run, last weekend.  Going to make it my Blog Profile Pic, too.  When the real one comes in, I will replace this one.