Trail running.

I went for a nice trail run tonight. The weather was a cool 45-50, with clouds. It was just right for shorts, not too cold; great evening for a trail run. I did the 'shevlin loop' which from our house, is probably between 6 and 7 miles. The first and last .8 miles are on the pavement, and then you hit the trails and continue on to this ridge (that I think used to be forest, but it burnt down), before trail drops into a valley with huge pondorosa pines and Tumalo creek flowing through it. The sound of the water would have been really neat, if the iPod wasn't blaring in my ears. The creek is really cranking right now, because of the 130% snowpack up in the cascades. Last year at this time of year I guess there was less than 40% average snowpack.

So it startes sprinkling on my way home, and by the time I got to our block it was a COLD rain. When I got in the house I noticed what looked like big wet snoflakes mixing in the rain. I was pretty drenched and cold, but it was one of those runs, that I'll think back on in August when the trails are a dust bowl and it's been hot and sunny for a couple months.

Got the new issue of Trail Runner magazine yesterday. There's a pretty big article on the trails around Bend. My friend Sean has a few sweet photos in there, so check it out!

I'm doing a 3 day road bike stage race in Eugene, 3 weeks from today. I'm ready for that, like a fart in church. I need to ride like this guy, in order to be a fast biker. Oh well, I can ride w/ the Cat 5s right? I've got the fitness, I guess well see. I might need to get the road bike out this week. Days are longer, eh!

But one more ski race to knock down before that happens.