Run Trails Vegan, Run Trails

I'm completely obsessed with trail running now. It's all I think about when my mind wanders to running thoughts. The road is just a training surface now that helps keep me fit for the trail.

Seven weeks ago I started a trail running clinic to give me the opportunity to trail run with a group therefore making it more safe, and to prepare for a 15k trail race at the end of September. I am loving this clinic! It's all women (for some reason) and I can't wait to go every week. I'm always a little nervous each week, wondering if I can keep up or if I should even be out there, and every week I have an amazing run and feel sad that its over. I'll have to see if I can continue somehow in the fall.

I've seen some beautiful trails on the north shore. Each week we're given a map and written instructions with the distance of the planned run. There are leaders for each group (advanced, intermediate, and short) who know the trails fairly well and set the pace for each group. I've been trying oh so hard to learn to read the map and instructions, but we often end up on a different route for whatever reason. This is fine because it's always a great run and still keeps us in the approximate distance, but my map reading skills aren't really improving. One week I realized that I was reading the map backwards! Someone did take the time to show me where we were on the map, but it sill looked completely baffling to me.

There have been some beautiful views, and challenging trails (climbing boulders? ), and last week I did my longest run at 19 k. It took us 2: 50 to run it, but I was so happy to have done it.

With the race next weekend I feel pretty confident that I can go the distance with some power hiking up the steep sections. While I won't have the group to run with, I will have all those other runners who have signed up to go the distance with. I can't wait!