Trail Running...

I've found that the only way that I train consistently is to be comitted to a race. I have a definite let down if I don't have a race scheduled on the calendar. Understand, I'm terribly slow, so the competition side of the race isn't much of a factor. I have been entering races with the primary goal being to finish. This is kind of silly for a 5k or 10k, but obviously pushes me for the 10 milers and longer. I'm currently set to run the RiverBank run (25K) in May. This race has me loosely following the published training schedule. In addition to the suggested training, I'm planning to run either the Strider's Classic 10 miler or possibly the RiverBank 15K training run on April 21st. It's pretty crappy that the RiverBank folks opted to schedule the training run on the same day as the Strider's run. The Strider's run has been around for years and many people use it as a tune-up for the RiverBank. Gazelle's is helping to organize the training run, so was the date purposely set to screw with Strider's??? The Grand Rapids running community should be a bit more cooperative than this. I think this only hurts the effort to get more folks running. Just my 2 cents.

Ok...back to trail running. I'm in Steamboat this week, enjoying the snow, getting good leg work-outs, and getting behind on my miles. Hopefully the skiing/snowboarding will serve as good cross-training and I'll catch up on the cardio back home. I spied an advertisement for a 10k here on June 30th. This is a big race, it's actually the USA Track & Field 10k Trail Championship. This race is on the mountain, starting at 6884' elevation and climbing to 7963' before descending and doing a second loop. This has peaked my interest. I obviously love being in Steamboat, and the thought of tackling a 10k at pretty serious elevation is tempting. I'll keep the blog posted if I decide to push forward with this.

Here are the relevant details:

Climbing: 1,109' vertical X two loops = 2,218 total vertical
Min/Max Elev: 6,884'/7,963'
Climb/Desc distance: 1.34mi/1.76mi

On the map of the race, the road just to the North of the course is Storm Meadows Drive, this is where our condo is.

I'm trying to figure out my next "big run" following the RiverBank. I'm thinking it will probably be the Chicago Marathon. I've never tackled anything approaching that type of distance, but the RiverBank should give me some confidence.

Enough for now.

- Scott