Trail Running Blog

Guide to High Top Trail Running Shoes: Boost Your Performance and Prevent Injuries

Trail running is an exhilarating way to connect with nature while maintaining fitness. However, it comes with unique challenges, such as uneven terrains and potential injuries. High top trail running shoes are designed to address these challenges, providing enhanced support and protection. Let’s delve into the world of high top trail running shoes, exploring their benefits, features, and why they might be the perfect choice for your next trail adventure.

A Trail Runner’s Guide To Healthy Eating

This is a guest post from Jennifer at Health Training Guide:

Trail running as a sport differs from other forms of running, such as road running and track running. Trail running is distance running that typically takes place along hiking trails, especially single track trails that are not easily accessible by road.

The environment differs for trail runners, too. Hiking trails tend to traverse various terrain: hills, mountains, woods, and deserts. In addition to the physical challenges, there is often a spiritual component to trail running. Trail runners tend to enjoy a sense of freedom in typically serene, forgiving surroundings. Read the rest of this entry »

Des Moines Trail Run

Happy to say that I survived my first trip to Midwest 🙂 There was some dead time after arriving in Des Moines and dinner with my colleagues, so I thought I’d check out the local trail about a mile away from our hotel. Although it is called Des Moines Trails and runs along this winding river surrounded by forests, it actually is more or less a narrow bike path made for walkers, runners and cyclists alike. However, running in a new environment was definitely exciting and I couldn’t wait to see what I would find during this 9-mile stroll (actually hit 1:10, 7:49 min/mile..not too bad).

Read the rest of this entry »

Trail Run Adventure to the Waterfall

I have been hoping to finally run on some trails for the past couple of months, but things kept getting in the way. First, it was training for my first half marathon and my incessant need to stick to the schedule. Then, it was a matter of actually finding good trails to run on, which is a task in itself. Once I finally figured out worthy trails to run on, out of nowhere, it rained every weekend for at least 3 weeks straight. And this is in San Diego, where it never rains! I finally found a weekend where rain was not forecasted. Actually, it rained later that afternoon, but I had finished just before it started. It may have been perfect timing since it is just a few weeks before only the 2nd trail race I’ve ever ran, the Black Mountain Summit 7K. What I’m hoping is that combining these trail runs before and after racing the 7K, I will be more than prepared for my next half marathon, the La Jolla Half Marathon (2nd half of the Half Marathon Triple Crown). This half, I heard, has a few daunting hills within this scenic 13.1 mile course.

So the trail I found is called the Los Peñasquitos Canyon Preserve, which has (at least) two main entrances to the trail. You actually have to pay ($3) to park at the lot by the entrances, but there is a park just down the road that is free to park in. I didn’t want to pull a muscle while running the trails, so…I chose to park down the road and ‘warm up’ to the entrance (good excuse, right?). What I learned at the end of the run is that there is actually a path to get to the same point from the park! Anyways, once I got to started, I noticed that the trail is very wide, which accommodates walkers/runners, bikers as well as equestrians. Because of the rains, there were not many people on the trails that morning, which was OK since there weren’t really any forks in the main road that would potentially get me lost all alone. There were a lot of side trails that led to to what looked like steeper, funner, hilly trails. But again, the rain had caused these paths to temporarily close; definitely piqued my interest though. The only problem with veering off to these trails is I have NO idea where it’ll lead me. The main path is supposed to be about 5 miles East to West and about 3 miles West is supposed to be a fun stop at a waterfall.

It was nice being able to run to a destination as opposed to just doing one big loop. However, when I got to said destination, I was a little disappointed (only a little because I read other people’s account of this majestic waterfall and they were not too impressed either). It looked more like a rapid flowing river with lots of rocks surrounding than a Niagara Falls-esque waterfall. What was cool was if you wanted to cross the ‘river’ to get to the trail on the other end, you had to very carefully walk across the rocks that were laid across. That would have been quite an adventure (if I did it)! Check out the photos below as well as the secret bridge/path to the park that I took back to my car. I’m hoping to take another stab at this trail in the future, and if I’m daring enough to follow “the road less traveled” 🙂

Half Training Week 3: September 21 – 27, 2009

I’m going to try and make this a quick update since I’m already late on this post. So Tuesday’s intervals were supposed to be 7×800 meters at 6:30 pace. Even though 7 was the most I’ve done for intervals, I wasn’ taht worried. The pace wasn’t too intense and I had been knocking these workouts out pretty easily. And the fact that they’re only 800 meters helped too. The first lap is a little easier because it’s the beginning, so I always try and focus on that 2nd lap. I’ve been trying to focus on my posture during these hard workouts. I’m hoping that this will help create some efficiencies when running. Here are the splits for the 800 meter intervals: 3:05, 3:01, 2:57, 3:00, 2:56, 2:52, 2:44. I’m really happy with the overall times, and was able to hit progressives. I broke 20 for the last 100 meters of last week’s intervals so I wanted to see if I could run faster this time and was able to hit a 17.19!

My tempo run was a lot better paced and I was able to hit around the goal pace or below for all 5 miles. Splits: 6:55, 7:05, 6:39, 6:46, 6:20. My Sunday long run I ran on the trail at home in LA again (need to post pictures of the trail soon!) I took a Clif bar with me to eat around halfway through the run with some water. I can’t really tell if the Clif bar helped since I stopped for water and rested too. But when I started running after eating the Clif bar, I felt really rested, not sure how energized. I really want to try some Gu things though, maybe I’ll use it during the half marathon. I heard that it’s important to eat them with water and actually heard of some people that had a negative reaction to them. Read the rest of this entry »

Trail Running at UCSD Campus Trails

Here are a few pictures taken from the University of San Diego (UCSD) trails that I ran on a couple of weeks ago testing out my new Saucony ProGrid Xodus Trail Running Shoes. This is also the trail where I ran my first 5K race back in May.

This is a really fun trail to run on with many different paths to choose from. There aren’t too many hills, but a few here and there.. Read the rest of this entry »

First Day of Track & Field Practice

Tuesday, February 12, 2002
Workout: Medium/comfortable to Duarte
Time: Avg/pretty good weather: sunny/hot

Today was officially the first day of Track and Field (finally!). The months in between cross country and track and field were pretty hard because it was only a small group of people running together (if any). And because it was not mandatory practice, it was hard to feel motivated to show up everyday. But I guess because there was a fair amount of dedicated runners meeting everyday, it helped me continue to show up and run. What I also like about having the track and field season finally start is that it’s nice to have the support of your teammates, which help push you to run harder and get faster. Having those ‘cheerleaders’ on the side of the track while you’re running your intervals help tremendously. It felt pretty good seeing all the runners coming out and stretching together on the track. I felt really at ease because it was my second year running track and field and I knew a lot more runners than I did last year. And I guess I was one of the more experienced, veteran runners and there will be a lot of new runners that will be looking up to us for advice. Read the rest of this entry »

Semi-Hard Recovery Trail Run

Sunday, February 10, 2002
Workout: Easy to Camino
Time: 14:05 up, 13:00 back Weather: hot/sunny

I didn’t really feel like going easy today because of the terrible workout I ran yesterday. So comng up, I went a little harder, but not too hard like yesterday and many other Saturday workouts that I’ve ran in the past. I needed to be able to control how fast I ran in the beginning of the run to be able to keep up a (relatively) fast pace for the rest of the run. I was at about 7:00 pace coming up, so I tried to keep it at that pace and I guess I did because I stopped and saw my time at Camino and it was a little past 14:00. I planned to rest for 3:00 (the same amount of rest we get during our mile repeats interval workouts) but I think I only rested for two minutes and then decided to head back.
Read the rest of this entry »

Trail Run to the End, With a Twist

Saturday, February 9, 2002
Workout: Warm-up to Live Oak, Hard to The End & Back to Live Oak, Cooldown Live Oak
Time: 51:41 (Mile 1: 6:00, Rest avg: 7:37) Weather: Sunny

Today’s trail run to the End and Back was handicapped! So whoever had the slowest time last time we ran to the End began first and the other runners would follow according to how much faster they ran it the last time. To my disappointment, I had to start the run, so I had to run with the fear of everyone else catching up to me. As usual, I started off too fast and after mile one, my legs felt really tired. I don’t know what from since the last time I had a hard run was on Wednesday. I guess I just started way too fast, which hurt me for the rest of the run. Read the rest of this entry »

Run on my Own to the Railroads

Saturday, February 2, 2002 (02-02-02)
Workout: Hard (pace) to Railroad
Time: 44:40 Weather: nice

Well I would have ran the real workout this morning (6 laps around Arcadia Park and finish at the top of the hill) if not for the alarm clock glitching or me not getting up from it. I’m pretty sure it is the latter, but who knows? So I decided to run on my own on the trail to the Railroad. When I first started running, I wanted it to be a hard workout since that was the type of run we were supposed to have today and I made it just that (but in the wrong way).

My first mile was 6:30 and that was what Fernando said we should run for the workouts. He wanted us to be able to run 6:30 for six miles, comfortable. But I was dying, so that wasn’t good. I was tired and was running all alone, two very bad combinations. I ran the last two miles coming up at 8:00 pace, which is pretty slow. It seriously felt like I was just jogging, even though I was trying to run faster.

I rested for a little bit at the Railroad and just wanted to get the workout done with. Coming back was the same as when I was running up: really bad. The last mile, I wanted to kind of pick it up and I did, sort of. The pace coming back was about 7:23 average which I think is alright. I was just glad I finished the run and went home without stretching or doing any strides.