A Day in Shenandoah

 

I had to wait 8 hours to see that our starting point was marked by this wonderful little concrete trail marker thanks to the hour of darkness when we started our adventure.  But it had been there marking the place where we began the long climb up to introduce my body back to serious trail running.

 Happily I was not alone but again in the fun company of D, hubby and their wonderful dogs.  After a crazy start to the morning with some forgotten trail shoes, I was quickly thrown back into the arms of those wonderfully taxing trails I have missed so much over the summer.

Running a local trail for an hour or so is nothing like carrying your supplies for an 8 hour run.  The excitement of being out there again was quickly replaced with the reminder of how punishing those climbs - and descents - can be.  Unfortunately D even reminded me how quickly things can get serious by being the first to take a fall during our run.

 

 

The weather was prefect.  It was hard to imagine that it was August in Virginia.  Although my legs were rapidly questioning how I will be Ring read by the end of the month, I was too caught up in loving being on the trail to really give much voice to those words of doubt.

 

D happily snapped photos of me dealing with all the abuses of the trail as I was lost in getting to see some new sites.

 

The climbs up were completely worth it!

 

 

One of many reasons I love ultra running is getting to see these amazing places.

 

And having friends who tolerate my nature loving side while in the midst of a training run doesn't hurt either.  Thankfully, D waited to indulge my nature photo ops.

 

 

And she captured awesome views like this one.

 

While I was enjoying this one.  But all too quickly our time on the trail was over.  My first - and potentially only - training run for the Ring.   

 

 

How fitting the we found these butterflies at the end of our run.  Ones like these had fluttered by us all day.  A few butterflies had been hurt probably ran over while they gathering salt from some sports drink dumped on the ground but others kept gathering there taking no lesson from their injured brethren.  It made me think of the craziness of trail running.

 

 

I will blindly continue wanting to do these crazy things even though I see the carnage around me.  There is something more powerfully beautiful drawing me forward and making my eyes only see the wonder. 

 

 

 

 

 



B Words

 

This past week has been full of the B word.  Yeah, thanks to all the worrying about LBM's school situation I did loads of B####ing.  But there were actually several other B words that seemed to be really prevalent in our week. 

 

 

 BUGS

LBM has been on a mission this week to discover all the bugs around the house.  Of course that is a fun science lesson but at this time of year those little critters have often grown!  We won't be catching this guy anymore.

 

 

BEGGING

With the approach of kindergarten LBM has started being responsible for certain chores around the house.  He earns a small allowance that he is practicing budgeting his money for his "wants".  But that hasn't stopped his previous behavior of using his puppy face to beg for things.  I didn't cave this time but darn he is so cute!

 

BLOOMS

My garden and flower beds have been a botanistic inspiration this week with beautiful blooms every morning.  If you follow me on FB or Instagram you are probably sick of the daily bloom bombs. 

 

But maybe you are also inspired for notice a few of the B words in your day too.

 

 



Easing into my day

One of my favorite things, aside from trail running is sitting on the deck in the morning.  I love drinking my coffee while listening to the birds - actually thanks to the 17 year cicadas I can't hear the birds. 

 

 

I even love pulling weeds from my flower beds around the deck while the morning is still cool.  So this morning I lingered too long and ended up lazing my way right through my morning run time.

 

I'm not too upset about it.  My walk was enough to wake up the soreness from this week's workouts.  My day will provide another time to get those miles in so for now I'm going to enjoy this moment and just see what the day brings.

Monday Massanutten Miles

After my amazing pacer agreed to run an extra training run with me the day after her 50k, disaster struck and we had to postpone a day.  Luckily the super secret spy was able to help out so that I could get the training in.

 

 

After only a few hours of sleep I found myself arriving uncharacteristically early to our meeting spot.  Although I still didn't look like I was ready to tackle the big climbs to come.  My coffee wouldn't kick in until later.

 

After we carpooled to our starting spot at Veach Gap we wasted no time hitting the trail and introducing me to a new section of the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 course.  The climb went on and on and on and on.  

 

 

 

Maybe the view was worth it but I still wasn't feeling it.

 

We indulged in micro-breaks to snap shots of flowers and enjoy the trail.

 

Even though it rained and drizzled the majority of our run I quickly realized that I had over dressed. 

 

But thanks to the cooling rains we had enough energy to goof around a bit once we hit the ridge line.

 

Between the lichen covered forest...

and the amazing rock formations. I was quickly starting to enjoy being back on the trails.

 

 

 

 

We even indulged in a little goofing off and took photos hiding in trail legend Gary K's spot.  Hopefully he will be hiding there race day and give me a big adrenaline indulging scare.

 

I felt like I was able to let go of the concern I had been feeling ever since the terrible experience at Bull Run.  I was able to enjoy just being in the woods, taking in whatever crossed our path and being happy to be doing it.

 

After about 11 miles we hit a short gravel road section.  Diane and I were both fueling and hydrating well with the supplies we were carrying.  We made great time getting through the little rural residential stretch.

 

We enjoyed a heavier rain while out in the open on the road but were both eager to return to the trails long before we arrived at the yellow blazes.

 

One of my favorite sections was finally getting to do the climb up Harbron Gap.  This will be somewhere around 55ish miles of the actual race course but today I felt filled with energy and the climb only increased my confidence about being able to tackle it after those long miles. 

 

The final section was an amazing generally down hill run on zig-zagging trails.  We paused only briefly to snap flower photos and to allow our only trail company of the day, 8 mountain bikers, to pass.  Before I knew it we could see through the trees the parking area where we had meet hours earlier.  I was so grateful for being able to get out and completely change how I am feeling about tackling my first 100 mile race.  Something I knew that I won't have accomplished alone.   

Thursday Things I've Seen Along My Way

Stop watching your watch.

 

 

After running for quite a few years you might think that I am used to seeing all the normal sites.  But I hope I never lose the enjoyment of seeing all those little things that can make the difference in a training run.  We all know that no every run - well, at least once you have children - can happen in the middle of a forested Eden.  Many training runs have to happen along a road.  Sometimes a road that has more traffic then a Zen place would allow.  But even on those runs when the noise is not of breezes and cows mooing and the sights are maybe a little harder to see, I hope that you can take the time to enjoy those small things that cross you path or rather you cross theirs.

 

In case you are finding it hard to notice them here are just a few. 

 

 

Have you been noticing more than just your pace and heart rate?

I challenge you to find at least one amazing thing in nature on every run you take. 

Share your findings here by linking up on Thursdays Things.

 

Ready to Run

This morning I was so ready to run.  The weather was wonderful, the sun was shining over the ridge line, the birds were singing, the air was still.  Perfect conditions to lose myself in a speedy morning run.

After yesterday's "grown up" activites, closing on the VA house, moving a few things, driving all over; you know just generally being responsible instead of just having fun on a day off of work! I was eager to be a kid again and forgot that I wasn't one for thirty minutes.  Which turned out to be on 26:45 because I was so rested and happy to be running that I ran very quickly!  Had I realized I was going so fast I might have slowed down just to make it last longer!

I will take an easy 6.5 mile run tonight since I have the Catch Me If You Can 10 miler Saturday.  The plan for this race is to just enjoy the run.  With everything that was going on this week, I have no intention of racing it.  If I can supress the urge!

Good Luck to all the other racers this weekend!