Whitewater Center Trails

Ok, what has it been? Something like 18 months have passed since I took one of my runs to the trails. The time felt right again to chew up some dirt. Helping push my thinking in this direction has been these summertime temperatures.

How many 90+ degrees have we had lately? More then enough if you ask me.

I probably don't appreciate how much the shade really means until I am literally melting in the street on one of these hot summer days.

But I digress, the Whitewater Center trails were in awesome shape yesterday.

I cruised around the north trail to the figure 8 trail from the trail head. Off the figure 8, I picked both the Carolina Thread Trail and then Academy trails. I like these two additions. They connect off the existing trails and they roll along pretty well. By the time that I had finished off the figure 8 trail, I have put nearly 7 miles in my rear view mirror. These sections make for nice little run, and the trails are not overly technical.

After the figure 8 I finished off the rest of the north trail and headed into the south trail. I picked up both the wedge loop and the goat loop. The Wedge loop, I like. The loop is a nice easy rolling loop. The Goat on the other hand has more “but” kicking hills than I remember. After south trail, I headed right into the Lake Loop trail. The Lake Loop is probably my favorite trail to run. After all, the trail is probably the least technical of Whitewater Center trails. Also, I was getting tired, and on the Lake Loop, I am least likely to snag my foot on a root and hit the dirt.

After I finished, I picked up my cooler of water and headed over the shelter by the trail head to relax for a few minutes. Over the closing miles my legs were feeling it. I didn't realize how much until I stopped running.

 

I am way out of trail shape. The twisting and turning, uphills and downhills, brought this realization home. So I am changing up my training plans to do my long runs on the trails for the next couple of months. Once I get 3 or 4 weeks under my belt, my runs should start to feel a little easier.

In the meantime, let's just say that I am going enjoy these summertime trail runs.

The Cool Down Runner