Northshore Trail Run (Murrell with Daniel)

I had the great pleasure of running for the first time with one of my buddies, Daniel. He started running about six months ago and has lost about 30 lbs. so far. His long runs are around the 10 mile mark and he continues to improve. He doesn't get a change to run the trails, so when we had the opportunity to get together today, he decided to hit the trails with me.

Since this was his first time on the trails, I decided to take him to one of my favorite loops at the Northshore Trail. We headed east from Murrell Park and looped back once we reached Northshore Blvd. My training plan called for a 4 mile run, so when we arrived back at Murrell, we had to add on another mile. We ran west for about a half mile, than doubled back.

Cross Training and Cute Restroom?

I decided to mountain bike for some cross-training today instead of going to the gym for my strength training. I rode from my house to the Murrell Park entrance at the Northshore Trail (about 2.5 miles) , then rode the trail to MADD and back to Northshore Blvd, then back to Murrell (about 6 miles). Once I arrived at Murrell I pointed my front tire for home (another 2.5 miles). So my total ride was about 11 miles, 6 of which were on the trails. Here's a screen shot of the trail portion:

Mountain biking the Northshore Trail.

Knob Hills Trail (Dunham)

My trail run today was fantastic. For the second run in a row, my calf muscle didn't bother me. I felt so good that I didn't want to stop. I also ran at a faster pace than usual. No lung problems. Lots of energy. Fantastic!

As mentioned previously, I am trying to get out and experience some of the other trails in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. I've decided to start with the trails surrounding Lake Grapevine. Today I ran part of the Knob Hills Trail, starting at the Dunham Road trail head and heading southward.

My training plan called for a 4 mile run today. So my intention was to run about 2 miles, then turn around and run back. But I was enjoying the trail so much that I keep going until I ran into a very wet swampy area that was significantly overgrown. Instead of trudging through the swamp, I turned around and headed back.

Here's a map of my run, followed by some pictures from the Knob Hills Trail.

Trail Running Uphill

I came across a great video of Scott Jurek teaching proper technique for trail running uphill. Enjoy!

Strength Training for Endurance (W1D2)

Last week I wrote about restarting my strength training program. Once again, I was able to get off to a good start, but didn't follow through the rest of the week.

I was planning to strength train on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday of last week. I made it Monday, but was very tired on Wednesday, so decided to take a rest day. I had to push my Thursday run out to Friday, which meant I had to push my strength training out to Saturday, and that just didn't pan out.

So I ended up strength training one day last week!