Muddy adventures

So I've had this little obsession with trails lately. I think it started when I went back to Memphis and enjoyed my long time fav yellow trail. I've been in search of all local Ridgeland trails the past week. Now I definitely appreciate the multi-use trail that is approximately 400 yards from my front door. But it's paved, and runners know what that means. Excitingly they're extending it along the Trace in the other direction, and they haven't finished, which gives me about 2 miles of hard packed dirt with a few dozen hard-hatted construction workers to dodge. It's a real off road adventure. But being only 2 additional miles leaves me looking for more mileage. 

I heard of the elusive privately owned trail system near where I ride my bike, and set out to find it. I had specific directions but would have still taken a wrong turn if I hadn't trusted the car in front of me when turning off onto what looked like someone's driveway.

Use of the trails requires a membership or at least a day pass, and I found myself with only a $20 in cash, which was well above the day use fee.  *I promise I'll pay next time!*

There were a few other cars with bike racks parked in the dirt lot, so I assumed I'd be dodging and dodged during my run. I never saw another person (and yes, I had my phone to call 911 if bitten by a snake; and yes, I'm more afraid of snakes than other people!).

After giving the trail map a quick glance and deciding not to bother even trying with it, I ran into the woods and found beautifully manicured, smooth, winding trails.  Now look at this picture and tell me it's not adorable:

I imagine"adorable" isn't exactly what they were going for, but it is! After wandering around for about 40 minutes, not having a clue where I was despite the random orange and black arrows, I suddenly came upon this:

Well of COURSE! That's where I am! See the small black arrow on the right? And then I popped out into the open trail leading to the parking lot. I decided not to risk going back in again, since my run plan was for a length definitely shorter than a few hours, and the potential for getting lost was great. 


A few days later it was time for a rainy trail run. Jeremy may not get quite as excited about our little adventures as I do, but he was up for it. This time we headed to the Natchez Trace hiking trails. Unfortunately, I got us lost, insisting that the trail that had wound up on the road after a quarter mile continued on the north side of the trace instead of the south side. J was right, but not insistent enough. We ran a few miles on the road before finding a bridge that crossed a muddy gravel road. After sliding down the hill from bridge to road underneath, we ran a few miles on it, then a few more on some pavement, then found the real marked trail, which we took back toward the original parking lot. 


The excitement about running the trails around here, especially those near the Reservoir, is the possibility of a significant wildlife sighting, in particular a sighting of one of the 3000 gators that live in the lake and river. Still nothing I've seen, not that I haven't been trying. I've nearly run off the road on my bike staring down stumps with interesting spiky patterns. The search continues. Jeremy and Laura have both had sightings of some sort. I'll keep you posted. 


Now off to find more trails!

The Real Race Report

Unbelievably, it's been a week and a half since the wedding! It all went by so fast and was truly more than I could've imagined. I spent the entire week before at Mom and Dad's house, where I had some pictures taken,

did a few trail runs and group rides, and finished final race, er, wedding preparations. Megan came in town to help, followed by Jenny and Tim, and my flower girl and ring bearer, and Ethan, of course! 

It turned out to be a beautiful day with perfect weather. I think my obsessive checking every 3 hours helped. 

I'm not much of a party host, so having so many friends and family there for MY party was pretty cool. Thank you all for being part of it!!

And I must credit Christen Jones for her amazing photography skills. We even got posted on her blog, here!

I couldn't have imagined a more fun wedding! I'm definitely excited about pictures, but I think this video is a true highlight. 

Jackson will be 4 next month, and I sure learned a few moves from him!

Trail of Gold

Also known more commonly as the Yellow Trail, this is my absolute favorite trail in Memphis. Having run most of my trail miles on this one, I have lots of memories. I trained for my first marathon and at least a couple of Ironmans on it -- many miles. It wanders along on the north side of the Wolf River for just about exactly 4 miles one way, depending on where exactly you start. The trail consumes 2-3 feet of width along its whole length, and it's nice hard-packed dirt with some sand and the occasional root. When I was running there frequently, my feet seemed to know these roots and glide smoothly over them. I distinctly remember one web of roots that created a perfect arrow pointing toward the river at about the one mile mark, but today I couldn't find it.

One of the first memories on the trail was from high school. I was on my way to my first run with mileage in the double digits, and my running buddies were my sister and boyfriend-at-the-time. I was lucky enough to witness Jenny and her epic tripping over a root. She sailed through the air like superman. I'll never forget that sight. I wish somehow I could paint a picture of it... wait, hold on...

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Now you can see why I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard.

I've run on the Yellow Trail in rain that was so hard it created a flowing river (but drained quickly when the rain stopped), and in snow deep enough to see some animal tracks that I swore were the infamous Big Cat that was rumored to live in the area. One summer it was unusual if I didn't see at least one copperhead on every run on that trail. I was with a group when one was stung by a scorpion, but I never witnessed a snake bite.

While obsessively looking for snakes underfoot one summer day, I failed to look at where my head was going and ran smack into a tree that had fallen over and caught in others, placing its branch at perfect scalp height for me. It was so perfect that the stitches came just to my hairline and created a tiny new part on the other side of my head. I had to run 2 miles back to the car with my bloody, now-red, formerly white tank top bandage.

On an early morning run, probably on a weekday, I realized that being the first runner of the day meant one thing: spiderwebs. I grabbed a large stick and ran along waving it in front of my face, as if casting some voodoo spell on the trees ahead. Suddenly around a blind curve came a guy holding and waving his own large stick. We must have both had looks of surprise and complete embarrassment on our faces realizing how ridiculous we looked, until we saw each other. I've also been caught in hysterical laughter while running by myself, listening to a podcast. At least they heard me coming.

Beginning a run with the cross country team just a few minutes too late one evening had us running back at dusk. Which quickly turned to dark. I jinxed a teammate by wondering aloud how we'd all managed to stay upright so far. I was answered with a thud right behind me. A few minutes later a ghostly white apparition appeared and I screamed. I probably scared coach more than he scared me.

The most horrible sight I've seen on the trail was today. I had hear of the massacre on Charlie's blog, but didn't realize the vastness of the destruction until I came upon this:

I haven't read up on the plans for this, but I see they're *keeping the outdoor enthusiast in mind (zoom in on the posters below).*

The asterisks, by the way, signify"sarcasm font," in case you were wondering. I was definitely sad to see this happening, and I'm afriad it's going to be a major thoroughfare when they're through with it. Send me the petition and I'll be the first to sign it!

I hope for all trail runners and mountain bikers (who help keep the snakes and spiderwebs away), as well as for myself, that someone will realize that this little trail in the middle of the busy city is such an oasis for so many of us.

During wedding week, I plan to go back a couple more times to visit.

Back in Memphis for the week, because it's wedding week! I got in town last night in time to get some sleep before the Ride for Your Mind this morning in Bartlett.

I haven't been on many group rides lately, except for a couple in Panama City last weekend during Girls Trip!! Casey had a couple of good workouts for us on those flat roads just north of town. My usual riding buddy and future husband had a few hours, in between working night shifts and sleeping, to do some running, riding and swimming with me last week. Then I caught the plague cold he passed onto me (good husbands share), and I haven't shaken it yet.

So this morning's ride was small for a supported group ride, and consisted of lots of teammates, my Magnolia's creator, and my German Freunde -- lots of familiar faces. Upon getting there Laura let me know that we were in for 58 miles instead of the expected 50. That works even better for my half IM training!

Riding on half lung capacity, I wanted to hang on as long as I could. And that would be about 24 miles. The pace suddenly picked up around a corner or something and I was Off The Back. Of course this had to be during a headwind stretch, and I watched as my spedometer dropped 7, 8, 9 mph. Suddenly, like an angel from Heaven, Dave from Velo appeared behind me and told me to pull him a couple minutes so he could catch his breath. He kept telling me to go my own pace and not gas myself, but as soon as I got below about 22, he'd come around and pull again. Not that this bothered me one bit. I kept saying thank you thank you every time. Let me add that he'd been dropped immediately following a pull, whereas I'd been hanging in the back the whole time, usually following the largest rider I could find.

Just 5 or 6 miles after going OTB, the aid station appeared and we caught up with the pack. Only a few miles after rolling out, there was a flat. I admitted my prayers had been answered! God cares about little me! Haha. Surprisingly, the pace was slower the second half and I had no problems hanging on the rest of the ride. I mean, it hurt, especially on a couple of long hills. But the legs were somehow there.

With our team duathlon tomorrow we headed over to the course to clean up. I might have been a little late and therefore "clean up" consisted of "chatting it up" with some teammates. Oh well, I was there for moral support! I'll be one of the first to arrive in the morning to make up for it.

The weather will be beautiful for a race tomorrow, AND it's looking pretty good for my race to the altar on Saturday too:

Wedding weekend should be beautiful! Now, what am I forgetting to do?

Weekend Report

I'm so slow at getting race reports together! I'll say that I was pondering the whole experience (when really I was just ignoring the blog). 


But I'll start with the beginning of the weekend. Both sisters came in town with their families, and from the moment I arrived until we went to sleep Friday night, Jackson didn't stop talking long enough to take a breath. This is good for his endurance training. And mine! I realized that I spend lots of days before races playing freeze tag (see LR Half RR) and various other games (which include riding a tricycle scooter-like off-road in the nearby park) with him and Emily. We do have a good time.


Saturday was hair cut and shower day, where I got loads of kitchen and bath goods. Damie has a good report of those activities, along with a picture of my Peeps. I mean my peeps. The day went by entirely too fast, and next thing I knew it was race day and we were in Oxford for the Rebel Man Sprint Tri.


I did this race 3 years ago, and probably haven't done anything even close to this short since then. Matt Fitzgerald has warned me about becoming a One Speed Triathlete, so I'm determined to avoid this fate. It's time for short stuff again.


Los Locos had an awesome showing (we all got hardware, the women swept the top 4 spots, men plus Maggi got 4 of the top 5, and it was fun to see everyone out there). 


So here's the rundown. 


Swim:
I forgot how violent swims, even in a pool, can be. I'm not all that into swimming right now, due to the move, new pool, no master's (at a reasonable hour, at least), etc. But when i start back, it's going to involve this type of training:







T1:
Um, please note that my 2:57 time for T1 includes not only the putting on of socks, too-tight arm warmers, and a tri top, as well as the usual shoes, glasses, helmet, but ALSO the "run" to the transition area. Inside the pool building we were reminded several times to walk! instead of run. It's a race people!! So I did my best speed walk. 


Bike:
I was totally happy with my bike time. I've ridden the tri bike about 3 times since October, so I have no issues there. I think Kona did something good for me too: I didn't notice the crosswinds that Damie and Laura talked about during the bike. It's either by comparison to the winds on the Queen K, or it's the extra weight I've put on since then keeping me from blowing around. :)


T2: SO MUCH EASIER! It's still hard to do anything with urgency when you're used to doing a full change of clothes and sitting down for a drink and an iced towel around your neck in a shaded tent...


Run: I was surprised to find my average pace was slightly below 7:00/mile. If I'd guessed what I was doing out there, I would've thought 8:56 was much closer to my pace than 6:56. Honestly! So the new movement is toward a faster cadence on the run, right? I kept reminding myself to increase stride length and slow down the cadence of my frozen legs. I think it actually helped. That or the downhills. 


Overall: 
-I need to remember to do things like start my watch when the race starts. I did that after the swim, but never looked at it again. It was under the tight arm warmer. 
-I'm looking forward to the speedsuits we're getting for this season. I decided I need to cover my thighs. If not for warmth, to keep the glare out of others' eyes. 
-Must find the profile bottle attachment so that I actually drink on the bike. 
-Next race I'm not going to drink a liter of orange Gatorade 5 mins before the start. Blech.
-Jeremy and I both got debilitating side stitches during the run. I blame our "coach." (me) 
-And most importantly, Jeremy BEAT ME IN THE SWIM! I knew it would happen soon, just didn't know it would be this soon. :)


Next up is a beach trip TOMORROW!! which will be a good course review for Gulf Coast in May. Not that I haven't done that race eight times, and IMFL another 5... I'm pretty familiar with the run loop. I'll take whatever excuse I can to go to PCB for a long training weekend!

the good

This week has gone by so much faster!I'm getting used to my 4:40 wake up call 3 times a week, and I've started doing some training of clients. 

I went back to Memphis last weekend for just over 24 hours, and filled that time with my bachelorette party, which you can read more about here and here. Laura and Damie did such a good job of entertaining (and keeping me out super late) and documenting one of my last single weekends . I also got to see Kellie and her adorable 2-year-old daughter who I'd never met! It's been that long.

Unfortunately Nancy couldn't make it back to town, but I'm very excited to report that she has started her own blog to keep us all updated on her adventures while in east Tennessee. 


This week in training is TAPER week, or really not so much, since I've not been training much to begin with. First race of the season is Sunday in Oxford. This will be J's first race in about 18 months, and I'm expecting big things (just not a victory over me). 


The tri season is here!