From Road to Trail...My New Year's Resolution

In the middle of 2005, I decided to get back into running in a more planned way. Rather than randomly entering races and running when it felt right, real training plans and goals and commitments to races became the norm. With that in mind, in 2006 I ran six half-marathons and four 10K runs (see the 2006 posts). It wasn't easy getting motivated to run on flat pavement often with very long straight-shot views of my next destination along the race course. I really dislike straight sections! And, all were all on road. At the conclusion of 2006, as I was making my 2007 resolutions, I was reading a running magazine which reminded of Scott Jurek's trail running camp that I attended in 2004 as part of the Breckenridge Crest Trail Marathon. That was such a wonderful treat of a long weekend. I sat there asking myself 'why haven't you run more on trails?' and 'when are you going to really test yourself and run an ultra?'. Hmmm, both good questions.

It didn't take me long to decide that 2007 was to be a transition from running on hard man-made surface to soft natural surfaces (at least most of the time), from fairly flat terrain to always-changing terrain usually with lots of vertical, from concrete to plenty of rocks and roots and mud, from cars and people dominating my view to trees, bugs, birds and animals inhabiting my vision, from the white noise of the city to natural forest sounds, and from general city business to tranquility and solitude (except for the presence of said forest creatures). I was really looking forward to experiencing these differences on a daily basis. Even though I've never had any issues with the physical impact of road running, I agree with others who believe that running on concrete and asphalt is just inherently hard on your joints, tendons and connective tissues. Hence, my decision to drop road running for a year and focus on trail running instead. I think I'm really going to enjoy spending more time on trails given that I live on Cougar Mt practically within spitting distance of two trailheads of the Cougar Mt Regional wildland Park, a 3,096 acre playground with 48 miles of trails. Heck, it is the largest urban wildland in the United States!

So, without further ado, time to get out on the trails and build up that base mileage...