TRAINING RUN ON THE WASHINGTON & OLD DOMINION TRAIL

I was in Sterling, Virginia on business and did my morning run on the W&OD Trail. This is a 44 mile trail in the Northern Virgina Regional Park Authority.

It was a brisk run, with part sof the path still frozen over in ice.

Overall the trail is very wide usually with a paved and a non-paved option running side-by-side.


The path even has stretching posts positioned every now and then.

Overall the scenery of the Virginia woods made for a very nice training run.

TEAM HOYT - A GREAT STORY

I was running next to these two at Boston Marathon one year for a short bit before heading up Heartbreak Hill.

BARKLEY TRAINING (ONLY KIND OF)

I found a route on San Bruno Mountain that is 11 miles long and has (very rough estimate) around 2200 feet of climbing. So over 100 miles, that would be about 20,000 feet of climbing - not even close to the Barkley (and much less than some "easy 100 milers). But this route does contain one fairly difficult stretch that rises over 1000 feet in less than 3/4 of a mile...through unmarked trails and overgrown brush that actually drew blood multiple time on my legs. Route is here: "Baby Barkley Jr. Hopeful" I plan on adding one loop a week so that before the Old Pueblo 50 miler on March 7 I would have worked my way up past a 50km run with those climbs. Then I will start adding repeats of the steeper parts.

Here are some photos from that run (complete with the ravens flying opver me waiting for me to fall to the ground).