Another good week in the mud

Another rainy week here in NE Ohio which meant the trails were M-U-D-D-Y!!! I ventured into the CVNP again yesterday and parked at Snowville road. My plan was to run the BT50K course for a nice long run. I started off towards Oak Grove and quickly found myself in the mud. There was no place to hide or ways to avoid it. It was pretty sloppy. I was running with my new Nathan hydration vest since I plan on using it for the Laurel Highlands race. As I left the car, I placed my key in my pocket on my running shorts since I had already put the pack on my back and was too lazy to undo everything and put the key in a pouch.

As I was sloshing my way through the muddy trails I was trying to enjoy the sunny morning. It was nice to hear the birds singing and to see blue sky for a change. I soon found myself at Ottawa point and reached around behind me to make sure my key was still there in my pocket... it was not! I almost panicked, ok I did panic for a short moment. I checked again and sure enough, no key. I thought maybe the key fell out when I put it in my pocket and it is on the pavement near my car. Sure, that is what happened... I continued on towards Oak Grove and I checked the pocket again, and found a hole...bummer... That key is surely lost somewhere in the 4 miles between Snowville road and Ottawa point. I turned around and started heading back, with my eyes scanning the trail fruitlessly for a key. I knew that chances were very very slim for finding it but I had to at least try. I saw a couple of runners and asked them to keep an eye out for a key, thinking, maybe, maybe we would get lucky. Got back to my car to check the parking lot and then retraced my trail back towards Ottawa point for a bit, just to see... nothing...

I called Denise to explain my situation and as I ran on towards Boston Store, she brought down an extra key and left it at the car. I was now able to run again w/o trying to look for a key... I made it to Boston Store and then on to Pine Lane. The trail from Boston to Pine lane was not as muddy as I thought it would be. The section from Snowville to Boston however more than made up for it.

Ended the day with close to 30 miles of sloppy running and ran another 15 today on pavement... Denise ran with me for 10 miles so that meant no mud! (which suited me just fine!) Another solid week of training in the books and one week closer to race day. My confidence is building and I am starting to form my race-day plan.

I will take a recovery-week this week, giving me time to get Mother's Day activities planned, and then start the last build period. Taper will start May 30!