onepinkfuzzy

I managed to get out the door yesterday morning for an approximately 10.5 11.3 mile trail/road run in Sabino Canyon.

I picked up Barbara, hit up Starbucks and headed to the canyon. We set out on the dirt road that leaves the east side of the parking lot, and headed to Phoneline. Up, up, up the side of the canyon we went, marveling at the orange blossoms flaming the ends of the ocotillos (oh-coh-tee-yo-s for all you non-Arizonans - my mom just calls them aliens), the sun glinting through the grasses and the sound of the creek far below. We made it to the junction where we could choose to head down to the tram road and out to the car, or head back to Sabino Basin (which is what we were planning on). I was a little worried about my ITB (I could tell I was pushing things on Phoneline), and also about the runnability of the trail - Barbara is a fast road runner, but has a tough time on technical, rocky trails. We went back a little ways, but the trail was getting rockier and my knee was hurting, so we turned around and headed back to the tram road. 3.75 miles of road to get to the car. I told Barbara to go ahead and go for it, knowing I was going to be slow (it was hot down there!). This is the road that my race next Saturday will be on - up and back. I had to walk about a quarter mile near the Rattlesnake Canyon junction - I swear, that is always the hottest part of the canyon. I chugged up the steep hill to get out of the canyon, and cruised to the end. All in all, it was a good run. Slow and tiring, but good. At approximately 10.5 11.3 miles, it's the longest I've run since Pemberton.

I feel pretty good today - I made sure to stretch very well last night. I did a great ITB stretch - after I finished stretching I could really feel the difference! It was like something released. Amazing. I did some more stretching this morning after going for a walk with Ash in the jogging stroller, and that felt good too.

I'm hoping for three, four-mile runs during this week, then I'll be doing the Sabino Sunset Run on Saturday, followed by an eight-mile run on Sunday morning (not sure where yet). That will net me a sound 28 miles for the week.

Johnny was looking around at races in Northern AZ, and found the Whiskey Row Marathon. I am seriously considering running it. It'd be a great training run for S&S. We'll see what happens.
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UPDATE

Turns out I did 11.3, not 10.5. Yay!