8.5 miles trail and road

Today I ran about 8.5 miles via a combination of trails and roads. It was 78 degrees and 65% humidity at the end of the run. The trail was completely shaded and the road was shaded in spots and sunny elsewhere. The weather was a non-issue, and that was great. I took in 2 Endurolytes and 300 calories during the run via GU gels, one Lemon sublime and two Tri-berry. I was trying these as the Philly marathon has GU gels. They were fine. I had about 2 liters of water but was carrying 4.2 with me. Coffee and cereal with rice milk as a pre-run meal since I woke up early.

The trail was along the Natchez Trace Parkway and the road running was on the parkway. I set out to run on the trail the whole time but the trail got worse and worse and at times was barely passable as it was overgrown with thorny vines and poison ivy (which I get just by looking at the vine). The trail at times was great with a flat soft under foot and other times impossible to run as it was very steep and covered with loose cobbles and exposed roots. I gave up on the trail after a third stream crossing that I didn't feel like doing (below).

I probably "ran" about 3.5 miles on the trail and ran 5 miles on the road. The road running felt great and I likely would have kept running but my shoes and socks were soaked from the stream crossings and laying in the last stream trying to wash off what poison ivy I could. I was worried about getting blisters on my feet from the wet socks but seemed to have escaped that fate. I guess I was just schedule for 8 miles anyway so stopping was ok. I felt great and felt like I could have run a marathon today if I had to. The road was very hilly (well, compared to town) but that is why I picked it. I want to get in more hill workouts.

It was probably not the best pure marathon workout day but rather a good cross training day for my legs and feet by running on different surfaces and at different angles and stride lengths.

I am going to head back to the road part of the Trace for some Saturday or Sunday long runs but will likely avoid the trail until after the marathon. I'll give it another try this winter when the plants die back and I am not directly training for a specific event.

Up for tomorrow: seeing if I can limit myself to the planned 6 miles.