Running has been going very well for me lately. I continue to run hard on the weekend and easy during the week, a formula that seems to be working for me. I’ve whittled my mid-week runs down to Tuesdays and Thursdays with a bike ride on Wednesdays. The early sun enables me to get out much earlier than I have cared to do over the spring months and it feels good to get those runs finished so early in the day.

Weekends consist of strictly trail running, enlisting anyone I can to join me and sometimes going it alone. The inherent problem lies in the fact that I like to go out as early as possible and most people don’t want to meet up before 7:30. So far my only friend who is willing to meet up at 5am on any given day is my friend Laurie. That’s been working out great for a few reasons.

My goal is to go out long every weekend for three out of four runs a month, and take a step-back weekend once per month. By going long I mean that I continue to push the number of hours I’m out there. Yesterday was 4 hours, my longest this month was 4hrs 40min when I ran on the Appalachian Trail. Laurie is currently training for a hundred mile race which takes place this fall, I plan on meeting up with her for a bunch of her long runs. I’m hoping to build up to 6 or more hours on any given day, a goal which is totally within reach, even now.

So far, I’ve been sticking to trails nearby but I am itching to venture a bit further away and explore some new trails. The trail I’ve been consistently running is at Trexler Nature Preserve which is crazy hilly. Since I’m often the lone girl amongst guys I either have to keep the pace or stray far behind. I find that running with the guys and running all of those hills is making me a much stronger runner. One goal of mine this summer was to build up to two loops at Trexler, and I’ve already done that twice in June alone. My other goal is to be able to run at least one of those hills; I still haven’t hit that but I’m working on it.

It’s still not quite the end of June and right now my main focus is Quadzilla, which is coming up in three weeks, but after that I plan to kick things up a notch with my running and set a loose goal for the fall. Not sure yet what that will be but keeping my mind open to the possiblilities. Happy Trails!