Well, yesterday's run was probably the toughest training run yet. My quads are still sore after 23.8 miles of hills, snow and more hills, but it was good to get out into The Canyons of the historic Western States trail with some other local runners training for this year's Western States Run on June 23rd-24th.
From Michigan Bluff, we headed downhill towards El Dorado Creek. From here, the trail took off uphill to the rock formation that is Devil's Thumb, followed by a short downhill, then a 2.5 mile uphill and gradual ascent to another Michigan Bluff to Last Chance trail marker. After refilling our camel backs with water, we quickly turned around and ran back through the snow, slush and dirt trails. At the end, we were greeted with potato chips, cookies and refreshing cans of Coke. What a workout!
With less than 14 weeks left until the big event, the weather forecast for this next weekend calls for a high of 85, yes that's right I said 85, on Saturday, so hopefully this will melt most of the snow off of the higher elevation trails, so I can experience more quad-busting excitement.
