What a gorgeous Saturday morning for a run! Today we finished the first of our "longer run" Saturday practices, running between 4-5 miles on the trails at Theo Wirth. Richard led us to the mountain bike/running single track trails, which were a lot of fun. The trail is pretty hard packed, with some fun log jumps and a few rocks and roots thrown in every once in a while.
After the practice we took about 15 minutes to stretch. It's a good idea to do this after your run (recent research shows its counter productive to stretch before a run or race). Stretching, along with strength and training smart, are the three biggest ways you can prevent injuries. I ran the group through my typical stretching routine which included calf stretches, hamstring stretches, butterfly and glut stretches. We as coaches will try to run the group through some sort of stretching routine after each practice (time permitting).
Today's practice was a little longer than most Saturday practices will be. We'll typically start with our "topic of the day" and then we'll let the group amble off on the run. For those that don't want to go the whole distance, they can head back whenever and not have to wait around for everyone to finish.
There was some interest in running other trails around the Twin Cities. I'd like to get the rest of the group's feedback on this: would you be interested in exploring the TC trail system? If so, which trails would you most like to run? If there's interest we'll pick 2-3 different places and try to plan them pretty far in advance so people know about the change in venue. I'm a personal fan of Lebanon Hills and Afton, but Afton you'll need a State Park sticker and it'll probably be pretty far away for some of our runners. Any other suggestiongs? Comment here and let me know what you think!
Lastly, the question came up: do I really need trail shoes? I said at practice that while trail shoes are certainly nice I didn't think they were a necessity (not like skis are to learning to XC ski). However -- I continuted to run a bit after the practice in my road shoes, and my arches were definitely sore. They still are now. I don't ever get that. I'm pretty sure they were reacting to running trails without the support/stiff forefoot of a trail shoe. I just hadn't run the trails w/out trail shoes in a while -- so didn't know how nice they really are! :) So, if you're thinking about buying a pair, I'd recommend it. Again, they aren't necessary, just very nice to have. Runners World says the same thing: http://wiki.runnersworld.com/index.php/Choosing_a_Trail_Shoe
Hope everyone has a GREAT weekend and a fabulous Monday with Coaches Mary and Jenny!
~Coach Nichole
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