Traveled trails: week five of 25k training

Quick summary of week five of 25k training: lots of climbing. Ran 10 trail miles and didn’t die. Overall very successful.

Monday: 3 miles, 950 feet elevation gain. I had planned on 4-5 miles Monday, but: I hadn’t run this trail and it was steeper than expected, thus the ascent took longer than expected; and there are two connecting trails running roughly the same direction, and I took the wrong one. The “wrong” trail was more than long enough, but it climbed steeply straight up the mountain instead of politely switchbacking like the trail I had intended to take. Even cut short, this was probably my first training run that really mimicked the race terrain. Better to start halfway through training than not at all, I guess.

Tuesday: Lower body strength workout.

Wednesday: Rest day. Originally planned for Friday, but for some reason I was so tired Wednesday. When this happens, sleep >> exercise.

Thursday: 4.5 mile easy run.

Friday: Upper body strength workout, slightly modified since I was racing the next day. I took out the lower body exercises (I do 1-2 lower body exercises in upper body workouts, and vice-versa) and kept the whole workout to about 20 minutes.

Saturday: Jim Bridger Trail Run. 10 miles, 2,400 feet elevation gain. I’ll recap this race later in the week, but overall I was happy with how it went.

Total: 17.5 miles, 3,350 feet elevation gain. While all the climbing this week showed that my uphill running/hiking has improved, it also showed I still have a lot of work to do. The trails I ran Monday and Saturday this week are in the same mountain range (though not the same trails) as the 25k, so I plan to be running in that area at least once a week from here on out. Hills hills and more hills.

Steep hills: yay or nay?

Where do you go for a super hilly run?