Hello, hello!
I had a fabulous 6 mile trail run with my friend Ashley this morning!
When we had dinner on Sunday night, Ashley was telling me about this cool trail she found that branches off from the W&OD trail in Vienna, near where she lives. I was excited to check it out and we made plans to meet there this morning. It was a bit of a debacle for me trying to find the place (I got totally lost), but once I did, it was well worth it. 🙂
As you all know, I’m doing the Reach the Beach Relay in a week and a half, so I’ve been trying to keep my mileage up to train for that. This was the perfect training run — hilly and rocky, so the 6 miles were a lot harder than 6 miles on pavement would have been!
We had a lovely run — the trail was beautiful and we had fun chatting and enjoying the fresh air.
As you saw on my watch above, we ran the 6 miles in 56:47, for an average pace of 9:27 minute/miles. We had to go a bit more slowly than usual in some parts because of all the rocks/roots and little hills — didn’t want to face plant or twist an ankle! 🙂
Splits:
- Mile 1: 9:57
- Mile 2: 9:52
- Mile 3: 9:20
- Mile 4: 8:54
- Mile 5: 9:40
- Mile 6: 8:59
Great run! My legs feel like they really got a great workout from all those small hills and the extra effort it took to keep me stable on the rocky trail. I always find trail running to be so fun and challenging — great to mix it up from the road.
And now, I’m packing a few last things, eating a quick lunch, and racing out the door! I’m taking the bus up to NYC today for a Fitness Magazine blog event tomorrow. From there, I’ll head up to Boston for a Reebok blog event. It should be a busy but really fun week. Stay tuned! 🙂
Are you a trail running fan? I’m thinking of signing up for my first trail race (a 10k that Ashley is doing near Richmond) just for fun — I’ve never done one before!
