Until There Are No More Steps Left To Take

Weeks Mileage: 39 Miles
1/1 - 1/7
Sun: Off
Mon: 7 miles
Tues: 6 miles
Wed: 8 miles
Thurs: 7 miles
Fri: 11 miles
Sat: Off

I had a great week upping the mileage a little. To be clear I didn't start at 36 miles last week, I started roughly 4 weeks ago getting very low mileage in the 20s, getting up to last weeks total of 36 miles. I'm just ready for the point where about an hour is minimal of what I do for a run. My workout plan for running is upping mileage for 3 weeks then tappering down for a week, and picking it back up the following week.

On Monday me and my dad had big plans to go up to Woody Gap on the Application Trail, and run from there to the top of Blood Mountain. Beautiful day by the way, but when we arrived we didn't take into account how cold it would be. Cold is no problem running in, but whenever you add in the wind, it is stright aweful and dangerous (especially trial running). It was 24 degrees with wind blowing 20 to 25 mph, plus wind gusts being at 45+ is definitally a no go. Just imagine running on a distant trail, getting warm working up a sweat underneath your layers of cloths, then falling breaking something, not a good situation at all. The run would have been an 18 mile total run, really not a problem I used to run this part of the AT over a year ago to train for the StumpJump 50K, but in reality I didn't need to overdue myself in this run. So, later I had to opt for the usual Raisin Woods Mountain Bike Park, which I ran for the whole week with the exception of Friday.

Firday was a great day to run on the Pinhoti Trail, which is not far from my house, and ran from Snake Creek Gap to a little past Pilchers Pound to get in 11 miles. Great trail, but very technical though. I was going to do my long run on Saturday but rain was expected and I didn't want to run in the mud. It was a rough run, more of a mental run. I never could get a rythm or anything, plus I kept tweeking my right ankle 4 or 5 times that I badly sprung (heard a loud pop when it happened) about a month ago. Lets just say way off of my usual time. On the bright side it was a beautiful warm day making it pleasent to be in the woods and I was being active.

                                                            Pilcher's Pound (5 miles in)

Finally Finished