Saturday, October 8, 2016

North Lost Lake loop trail run

Today's Spartan Beast training run was on the Chuckanut trails again. My husband had plotted out a nice big loop today. Before we left we looked at the hourly weather forecast - 80 to 100% chance of rain while we planned on being on the trail. I read on in the report and it said we would be having an atmospheric river flow for the upcoming week. 
We began at the North Chuckanut trail head parking lot again this week, and ran up towards Arroyo park. As you can see it was a very dark start this morning. The bright spot on the photo below isn't the sun, it's a rain drop on my iPhone screen protector.

We then headed up the North Lost Lake trail. Someone had tucked a little feather in the trail post.

It was raining pretty hard when we began and the trail was pretty saturated, as you can see in this video. At first I tried to avoid running right through the water, but as the miles went on I realized this was a losing battle and just enjoyed the puddle running.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYugaROK-8k

We then headed up towards the Rock/Burnout trails. This time we didn't go up either of these we continued on towards Fragrance Lake.

Such a dark, foggy day, no wonder they say that those that live in the PNW need to take extra vitamin D in the winter months.



Fragrance Lake had no reflection today.

After running around the lake, we connected with the Two Dollar trail and then ran out the road to the interurban trail for our finish stretch. As you can see in the following photos, it did get a little lighter and drier for the last leg of our journey.


We ended the day soaked to the bone, thankfully it wasn't cold.
2 weeks till our Spartan race, then we'll see if all of our training will pay off.

Endomondo stats:
total miles - 12.3
minimum altitude - 118 feet
maximum altitude - 1606 feet
total ascent - 2126 feet
total descent - 2129 feet

Another fun day of ups and downs on the Chuckanut trails.

Monday, October 3, 2016

September Summary - Spartan race training

September's training for the upcoming Spartan Beast at the end of October had many more aggressive workouts and trail runs than August. I'm holding up O.K. just a sore left shoulder I'm trying to keep happy. 
My close friends: foam roller, ice, heat & massage.

If you click on the photo below to enlarge it, you'll see the individual activities are color coded on the chart.

October 22nd "Beast or Bust".
Trifecta Bound.

Wish me luck, as they say "You'll know at the finish line".

Spartan race's quote:
"The Reebok Spartan Beast: This is our most difficult of the three. The Beast will test not only your endurance, perseverance and grit, but also your mind. The 12-14 Mile Beast packs more than 30 Signature Spartan Obstacles and your final hurdle to Spartan TRIFECTA glory. It won’t be easy but you can’t believe how good the medal feels at the finish line."