A mentor of mine, Dan Doran, flew my family to Phoenix this week because he wanted me to film a testimonial for his upcoming infomercial.
So that was a fun little free trip, actually we got paid a little bit too since they paid us per diem for food which was way more than necessary.
And it was a great opportunity to visit our step-family in Phoenix who we never see and do some running and playing in really nice weather.
The weather was between 80-85 Degrees which was really nice. Nan won a little 5K race on Saturday morning in a time of 17:31.
Then we took the kids swimming at the resort which was fun. Then I went trail running for a little while in the hills near scottsdale.
That was an experience. Good and bad.
It was a phenomenal morning for a run. On the hot side, but not too hot. I really liked it. I love running with just shorts and some water. I found a trailhead in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve that looked cool and started running up. It was a pretty easy/moderate uphill run for the first 2 miles that kept getting gradually harder and harder. The last mile was a true butt kicker in every sense of the word, but I was ABSOLUTELY determined to run the entire way to the top (of the pass. I didn’t see trails to the peaks, and I didn’t want to be away from the fam all day, so I settled for the pass as my goal from the onset which was a 3.5 mile run out and then 3.5 back.)
Here’s a pic of the pass I was headed too.
Well, I was within 1/4 mile of the top and I stubbed my SAME STINKING INJURED LEFT TOE as last week! Such a pain. I was barely moving going uphill at that point in about a 16 min/mile. It hurt decently bad and I had to stop and sit down for a minute. Which bummed me out, because I was feeling awesome.
By this point I was so close to the top I wasn’t turning back yet, even though it was now hurting my foot a little bit to run on. I figured I had to make it down 3+ miles still anyway, so it wasn’t going to make a difference to go a bit more to the top.
But the next 1/4 mile was pretty much straight up. I love super steep running, it feels so cool even though I’m going so slow, it just feels cool to keep running even though its so steep, and passing hikers and blowing by them at a sizzling 18 min/mile is kind of funny. Its just funny that I’m going so slow and yet everyone else is moving at about 30 min/mile or less at that point.
I made it, and I felt really good about making it and not bailing because my stupid foot hurt a little. But coming down was really slow going. I was ultra cautious with my foot and I descended the 3.5 miles back to the car probably 10+ minutes SLOWER than I had ascended it. It was between 35-40 minutes to get up, and a total of about 1:30 of total time out. I don’t know because my watch died after 2 miles, and my phone battery died, so I had no clue what time it was.
Also, on the way down, the pads of my feet started hurting a lot, it was the weirdest thing. I think I figured out why, and it was because of all the fine desert sand that got in my FF’s and was grinding against the front of my forefoot.
Super interesting roller coaster of a run. Never had that unpleasant of a downhill run before, usually I really enjoy the downhill, but because of my hurt left foot and the pads of my feet hurting, it was just kind of surviving the downhill. LOVED the uphill though.
And I’m really considering getting some different shoes to try out to protect my toes a bit better. It seems that when I’m tired, I get sloppier and I’m at risk of painful toe stubbs, which seems to be a drawback of the FF’s in mountain running.
So anyone recommend a great shoe with a TOTALLY FLAT sole?! I really don’t like a raised heal at all and I’d like to find a mountain shoe that will work as a supplement for me. I love running in my FF treks, but I would like an alternative for certain occasions when I want more protection, specifically like right now when my foot is trying to recover from injury.
Here’s a picture driving up to the trailhead. A beautiful place to go running.
