Blog Post

First up this year is Cruel Jewel. Questions floating in my brain...are my legs REALLY gonna be able to do this whole series? I've never climbed 17,000ft in one race...in 56 miles to be exact. Am I gonna be crying with my tail between my legs after the very first race? I am terrified and excited....and terrified!  I don't feel like I need any answers. They won't come anyway, so why spend the energy trying to figure  what the outcome will be. There's no way to tell.  And I love that. So, like my kindergarten teacher said, "color hard". I am coloring and coloring and coloring....all kinds of training paintings (runs)....here's a few pics and a rundown of today's painting ~ a 10 miler on a large wildlife preserve near home...

32 degrees and snowing moderate to heavy with moderate wind. This would be a solo jaunt. Parked at the base of the preserve and warmed up for about 5-10 minutes before hitting the first hill. 

Here's Comb's bridge, near where I started my run, crossing the Illinois river

Climbed the first hill keeping a zone 3 to mostly 4a effort climbing to the top, about a 1/2-3/4 mile hill.  Plateued and ran across the top of the preserve for another 1/2 mile or so...

Hung a left off the preserve road onto a fire road, a less maintained forest service road.  I call it "no horse" road....there's a sign that says no horses. Original I know. I've never been down there, so this would be a new adventure. I didn't know how far or where it went, but had about 3-4 miles before I would need to turn around.

The trail/road undulated up and down mildly for a bit before taking a big downhill....And here I found the only ski slope in Oklahoma! You can't appreciate the downhill grade or the length...It's about a 12% downhill grade and about 3/4 mi long hill down and around the corner...and around another corner or two.

I came across this nice critter/bird house and couldn't resist a pic

Going down I ratcheted it back to zone 2 and relaxed and cruised down.  Another up in zone 3-4a and turned around at 5 miles.  Those ups and downs would now be in reverse.

At mile 8 I popped back on the preserve road. This gave me a chance to really play. My legs were feeling spunky from the up and down and the last 1/2 mile of fairly flat recovery.  I took off!  About 2 inches of snow under me on gravel road, road that would now be flat and down a 1/2- 3/4 mi hill to the base. My pace was in the 7s and then the 6s, it was a hoot!  Then a 1 mile of more relaxed recovery back to the van.  

This run looks like it aged me a bit! .