Vacation

On Sunday, we left Roseau and drove to White Swan Lake for a week at Uncle Loren's Cabin. On the way to the cabin, Emily and I drove through Baudette and I was able to show Emily some of the places I spent growing up. Our old house had some updates and looked good.

On Monday, I got the first of my trail runs in. I ran 4 miles in the morning to get me warmed up. In the afternoon, I ran 4 - Half Mile repeats. Monday was one of the nicer days of the week so of course I followed each run up with a swim.

Tuesday Morning I got up early for a 10 mile trail run. It was nice to get out and practice trail running before the Wildwoods Challenge. I averaged a pace around 8:55 per mile. I was a little tired from the repeats the day before, but other than that the run went well. Halfway through the run, I found an unopened Snickers Bar on the ground. The energy helped me out during the run. I now know I should back some candy in my Camelbak for Wildwoods.

Tuesday afternoon I made bonehead move #1. Dale asked me to sweep the roof and clean the gutters out of the cabin since everyone else was afraid of heights. After cleaning the roof, I decided to try to jump down like I used to as a kid. I learned that I am no longer as young as I once was and ended up with a hurt ankle.

Wednesday morning I made bonehead move #2. I read the book, "Born to Run" about the Tarahumara Indians of the Copper Canyon in Mexico. The book talked about how running barefoot can be helpful to injury reduction. I was walking around barefoot and stirring coals from the previous days campfire with a shovel. When I was done, I pushed the shovel into the ground with my right foot and burned the bottom of it.

Thursday morning I got up and swam a quarter mile across the lake. I need to work on swimming endurance quite a bit before I am ready for a triathlon.

Friday morning I completed my second long trail run. This one was 11.5 miles. The extra 1.5 miles from Tuesdays run was through some swampy area which slowed me down quite a bit. When I was running on trails, I average between 8:30 and 9:00 miles. I had to stop and walk every once in awhile though. It was a good final tune up for the Wildwoods Challenge though. I learned the need to refuel during the run and am prepared to do so at Itasca. My ankle hurt a lot after the run, but didn't bother me much during it. I think it will hold out for me during the race.