Trail Running Blog

Just Another Trail Run

Friday, January 4, 2002
Workout: medium/relaxed to Duarte
Time: pretty fast (6 minute last mile) Weather: sunny/warm

Today’s run on the trail was supposed to be a stick-together, fast and relaxed run. It wasn’t supposed to be a killer run because tomorrow, we were going to have to have a very tough workout. However, this doesn’t mean that we should dog the workout, because every run still helps out in the long run. So coming up on the trail, we pretty much stuck together, more or less. At the beginning of the run, Frank took off, like it was his hard workout. But he either started to slow down or we picked it up a little more. Toward the end of the first half of the run, it was Felipe who was leading it. So we came up with Felipe first and then me right behind him.

We all rested on the trail for a short period and then headed back, with Fernando telling us fast and relaxed. I started off a little slower, so I had a small gap between the pack. However, after each street, I surged to get a little bit closer. Then at Longden, we were running in a straight line: Frank, Ha then me. For some reason, I was thinking to myself that you shouldn’t be running behind people like this, so I surged past Ha to run next to Frank. At Live Oak, Frank and Fernando took off a little, which sort of left me in the dust. So now there was this gap between them two and me. But at the dirt downhill of the trail (about half a mile left), Fernando slowed down and stayed on the dirt trail, while I stayed on the cement path up top. From where I was running, I could see Fernando, because I was much higher and I could see myself slowly passing him. Lately, I have been making the decision to stay up on the cement trail instead of the dirt downhill trail just to be able to run faster on the cement and not let other runners pass me. I hope I continue working as hard as I have been and continue to improve. I should be able to run well tomorrow, even though it’s going to be a tough one.