I got to run on Pre's Trail the past two mornings and it's quite a nice trail. My only complaint is that it is flat (I like hills) and that it is pine chips and dirt. My lower legs were covered in dirt once I finished running and now both my training shoes and racing flats are extremely dirty. I guess this is the side effect of running on soft pine trails. I've also noticed that the softer trails around here make my patellar tendons sore. I run mostly on roads in Huntsville (which I prefer) and my patellar tendons are strong, but they are just not used to the stability required of them from running on soft trails. However, I think if I ran on these trails more often they would adjust. Other than that though, it's a great place to train. The weather was amazing and it's a 4.1 mile loop with various connectors throughout. It's a very peaceful and relatively quiet place to train.
Saturday morning, after a 4 mile warm up, I did a 4.1 mile tempo run on Pre's Trail. I ran 29:21.7 (7:09.7 per mile). It felt good (the weather was great) and I was pleased with it. I felt like I could have gone on to 6 miles at that pace. I'm hoping to run around 19:40 for 5k next weekend in Houston. However, if I were to run a 5k up here I think I could get pretty close to 19-flat. It's hard to describe how easy it is to run up here and how big of a negative effect the heat and humidity have (it was 50 degrees this morning when I ran.... in June!).
It’s also a pretty cool to be running on the same trails and at the same time as the elite runners. I’ve seen Bernard Lagat, Matt Tegenkamp, Evan Jagar and a host of others that blew by me in a blur and I was unable to recognize them.
I've gotten in 22.5 miles the past two days (I'm currently at 53 for the week). This is more than I wanted to run this week, but I've decided to just go with it and take advantage of the great training areas while I can. I'll try to keep tomorrow's run under 6 miles.... but no promises :)
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