Fantastic trails? Check.
Beautiful day? Check
Brilliant sunshine? Check.
Great company? check.
Amazing scenery? Check.
Warm enough to take my shirt off after two miles and actually get some much needed vitamin D? CHECK.
Once again I am experiencing the beauty of the high desert. I bet if I lived here it would SUCK but coming from Seattle this is a most righteous change of scenery. I love it. LOVE IT.
Mike R my brother in law (Shelley's sister's husband) is a runner and he's been showing me around. Thank GOD he has taken up trail running recently as there are some amazing routes out here.
We parked the car and right away I knew I was not going to need as much clothing as I had on yesterday so I just started in a short sleeve shirt. You have no idea how nice this felt… :)
The first mile is more or les downhill and I was plenty comfy so once we started to climb I started to get warm. I don't like to think of myself as that shirt-off guy but it was genuinely warm out so after debating with myself for a bit I said screw it and got naked. Of course as son as I did that we started to pass loads of people who had on jackets and sweatshirts, you name it. At this point I didn't care. I had a huge perma-grin and was loving life.
half way into the run I opted for a short detour while Mike stuck to the loop. Our pace had been pretty relaxed to this point so of course I go blasting up the hill like an idiot and after just a minute or two had to slow down. Ha! Serves me right.
On the way back down and then on the rest of the loop I had a fantastic time. By this point there were loads of hikers out and I kinda scared one women. :( I was rounding a corner and they did not see me in advance and she shrieked as I burst into view. Oops. As I ran past I was like, "Sorry…"
The last bit of this loop climbs a fair bit and I had to stop once to walk for a few seconds. I used the excuse of having to unscrew my water bottle with full hands but I was sucking wind for sure.
The last mile is basically all downhill with just a couple of bumps and it was a blast. I was blowing past hikers and running up the burms in corners. One word: fun. Wen I got back to the car I was pretty bubbly to say the least. I could come back here no problem.
| Sleep | 6 |
| Waking HR | |
| Body Weight | |
| Body Fat | |
| Breakfast | 7:00 AM - 2 bananas w/peanut butter, beef jerky, water, orange juice |
| Lunch | |
| Dinner | |
| Workout Food | small bottle w/1 scoop Cytomax |
| Injuries | |
| Therapy | |
| Time of Day | 10:30 AM |
| Workout Type | |
| Weather | mid 50s, sun, calm, dry |
| Course | |
| Results | |
| Time | 1:21 |
| Distance | 7.6 miles |
| Pace | |
| Equipment | Brooks Cascadia |
| Clothing | shorts, Patagonia short sleeve shirt |
Looks like a great run. I use to live in Vegas and did a lot of hiking in Red Rock. I'm going back on business and wanted to run a trail or two. The trail you ran says 7.62 miles, does that included the up and back on the side trail located on the map? Thanks in advance - Dave
ReplyDelete@David - yep, the total from my GPS watch does include the out and back section you see.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to Vegas on work this weekend - just to clarify - were the trails you ran on fairly clear? I'm looking at the trail map for the park and it doesn't really show the area where you ran. Being a woman on my own, don't want to get horribly lost!
ReplyDelete@Niamh - yep, the trails are clearly marked. If you are at all worried, just grab a trail map at the visitors center and take it with you.
ReplyDeleteIf you do this same loop and go clockwise like I did all the intersections are in the first half of the fun and then you're home free. Just skip the little out-and-back that I did (which I believe is the last intersection going clockwise).
Have fun!