Tales of Trails, Mountains and Rocky Roads

Having returned home from San Diego late Monday night, we had a few days off work to chill out and do some relaxing at home. I had a deep tissue massage with the amazing Mackenzie on Tuesday which helped to alleviate some of the post marathon soreness and I was really happy to have managed a couple of easy runs to aid recovery, which saw me heading up Union Peak at the Sonoran Preserve close to home. It was a hot but beautifully sunny day, and despite the heat and the steep climb, I really enjoyed being back on the trails having been mainly road focused for the past few weeks. Fun running on Union Peak :-) By Friday, we had all our camping gear packed ready to head north for a couple of nights camping in Flagstaff. Crazy as it seems, I was racing again on Friday evening, this time the 27km Blackout Trail Race on the forest trails at Fort Tuthill County Park and with volunteering to help out with the Big Pine Trail Races early on Saturday morning, we had decided to stay over on t...

Just a mere 7 weeks ago, I made the decision to run another marathon, this time in San Diego. The decision came just a week after running an 88km trail race and almost 18 months after my last road marathon where I had vowed never to do another one again. My interest in road running had waned since moving overseas back in 2012 and I find it extremely boring and arduous work trying to stay focused and running hard on pavement for much more than an hour these days. And yet I also saw the benefits of running another marathon - it meant I had to work on my speed and leg turnover, work on my speed endurance, something that my body just wasn't used to anymore with being an ultra-runner and trail running convert for so long. Moving from trail to road and preparing for a marathon in just 7 weeks wasn't easy. I knew the distance wouldn't be a problem, but I had no idea how I would cope with a faster pace. I also wasn't used to pounding out the miles on road these days and my...

I was meant to have raced the Adrenaline 27km Night Race on Saturday evening, but instead I was at the cinema watching the new "Guardians of the Galaxy" movie. It wasn't intentional, but last Tuesday I had a terrible sore throat and by Friday I was snorting out lots of the green stuff and had lost my voice. I was actually feeling ok and went to bed Friday night with every intention of racing but on waking up on Saturday morning, I started to question whether racing would be wise. Since the Whiskey Basin 88k at the beginning of April, my focus has been on the San Diego Marathon. The Aravaipa races have just been part of my preparation for the marathon and whilst I love to race and be competitive whenever I can, I haven't really been out to win these races but rather used them to gauge my current fitness levels.  T he plan had been to run the Adrenaline race at my marathon pace, or at least as close as possible given that I would be running in the dark on trail...

We are now in May and marathon training is in full swing and I have to say that I am very surprised and very happy with how things are going right now and so long as I can avoid injury and I don't overdo things, I am feeling optimistic about a good run in San Diego next month. Looking back to April, it was a pretty awesome month - not only did I have some good races but I also had some good training sessions which have given me a huge confidence boost. It hasn't been easy with Andy working away so much, but I have managed to fit in some decent quality runs in between walking the dogs and keeping them entertained, and looking after myself. I recovered surprisingly well from Whiskey Basin and within a couple of days, my legs were back to normal and I was ready to run again - so much so that I sneaked in a little 3-mile run a day earlier than I should have done! But I felt great and having taken it easy, I knew it wasn't going to do any harm. I also got a cou...