16 miles of Trail Running

February 29, 2016 Faux Runner Comments 6 comments

Yesterday was a gorgeous day to run outside. For my long run this week, my goal was to increase time on my feet without necessarily having to increase mileage or speed AND without having to run mind-numbing Z2 run for 4hrs. The trails are the perfect place for that!

Kennesaw Mountain, Cheatham Hill and Kolb Farm are some of the main trails around the Kennesaw Mountain Battlefield National Park. Although they are all “separate”, the trails are all interconnected to make for some glorious long run loops. The park’s beauty hides the history of the bloody civil war battle but the cannons, trenches and monuments along the trail serves as a reminder for the 14 day battle in which thousands lost their lives 150 years ago.

I’m not an ultra runner or a complete trail runner like some of my friends but I love running on trails. Joy joined me for the run and it was just beautiful! She had severe breathing issues midway but was so spunky to continue!!

The Illinois Monument (easily reached from the Cheatham Hill Parking)

Left? Right? Joy says – That way!

I was super tempted to stop and dip my legs in the little creek too!

Lots of trails and lots of history!

Positive Takeaways from the Trail Run

It took me forever to run those miles – 16 miles in 4hrs 15min (about 15:00 pace) but as Joy said, I was still running after 15 miles and not crawling like I thought I’d be.
I felt that I could’ve run 10 more miles today if I absolutely had to. I guess that means that marathon training is coming along!!
The hill repeats are paying off, even if they are on the treadmill. I haven’t done a single hill repeat outside and I was worried about it, but I could go up most of the hills easily yesterday and more importantly, recover quickly too.