Sometimes, there's NOT an APP for that

Trail Running for me means that I leave the house, with Vespi in tow, and we just run around the mountain, wherever we feel like it. Every intersection is a new adventure in freedom - I can go wherever the hell I want! Most of the time, though, I end up on my same 2 hour loop, weaving through the mountain biking trails which have the best water sources for my girl.



But some of my friends have been posting their stats: how far they run, where they run and some are even posting their splits. (Check out Dirt in Your Skirt - an awesome local girl training for adventure racing). My unwanted competitve side has started to become curious as to how many miles I've been running. Given the fact that I really needed to work off some excess "enthusiasm" today, I thought that I would download an app to track my regular loop.





Oh, I so needed this run though. All my thoughts from Wanderlust are still a big jumbly mess inside my head, so I was glad to get a few hours to start straightening them out. I had been working on my lunge stance at home in my practice, so it was awesome to start putting things to use during my adventures...All I really wanted to do was burn off some steam, focus on my footwork and integrate the body geometry I had learned but instead I felt like I was particpating in some kind of invasive examination.



The program had this thing where every FIVE minutes, a factual female voice would break through my music to tell me not only how many minutes I had run, but how many miles and my minutes per mile average. Are you kidding me?! The first time she spoke, I tripped over a rock, stubbed my two big toes and almost fell off the trail. It also made it very difficult to enjoy my surroundings and take photograohs because I was too worried about throwing off my split times - I could hear my coxswain yelling at me to pull harder! And all I wanted to do was enjoy my damn run! Awesome...



As I broke through the stress of being judged every five minutes, I was able to work on taking the lunge assist that we had studied during Desiree Rumbaugh's class and bringing into my running. To maintain an active lunge, she had a partner sit on our upper hamstring while we focused on lifting that weight toward the sky. This forced us to really engage the butt and upper hamstring instead allowing for a little bit of slop :)



With running, that meant pushing more off my backfoot with each stride and then lifting my body weight forward - which is okay when you're traversing, but my upper hamstring is wicked sore after climbing some of the hills and main trails around Killington. But it's the kind of sore where I was finally able to use my whole leg with each stride. I cannot wait to see how all this new knowledge will effect my skiing in the fall :)



What did I realize from my final run report? My run was EIGHT miles!! When I was in junior high I could barely run a mile (I actually skipped out on the finish of the mile race in fourth grade) - and now I'm running 8 miles in two hours because I just feel like running? That impressed me. I don't care that it took me two hours with Vespi's water stops and all my picture taking.



But for next time - I will be leaving the technology at home.

I just want to run and enjoy the mountain.


See you on the Mountain,
FemaleSkiBum :)


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