Trail-running and tennis

by Maria Torres

Mondays and Fridays are rest days for our marathon training, and it was nice to have a break after a pretty active weekend. It was rainy on Saturday, but since we needed to get our 7-mile run in, David and I had no choice but to run on muddy trails. I think there is only one paved running path in Telluride, and it's usually covered with people riding bikes at very high speeds. My lack of coordination coupled with one very hyperactive puppy makes running that path a very bad idea.

So, off we went to the woods to get some miles in. We let Sooie and Bodhi off of their leashes because we were in a remote area with no cars anywhere nearby. David ran ahead of me early on, and the dogs decided to stay with me. Watching them chase one another and roll around in the mud was a nice distraction. They shot in and out of a barbed-wire fence that bordered one of the paths I was running on, and I didn't discover Bodhi nicked his nose on it until we got home. He is fine, but at first it appeared to be a pretty bad cut. He was having such a good time that he didn't even seem to notice it until he calmed down later. It was an excellent running area for them, so hopefully they will know next time not to go near the fence.
When I finished the 7 miles (I use a Nike+ sensor and receiver to track my runs), I was nowhere near my car, so I decided to just jog the rest of the way back. I ended up being an entire mile away from where I parked, so my 7 mile run turned into an 8 mile run. I felt great at the end of the run, so I am becoming more confident about some of the longer runs down the road.

On Sunday, Alex and Wendy let us use their private tennis court nestled in the mountains, and that was amazing. We felt like celebrities! Neither of us plays very well, but we had a ton of fun just hitting the ball around. Since Sunday is our cross-training day, it was the perfect work-out.

Last week, I set up a Nike+ challenge for my dad, David, and me to track our mileage and make sure we are all on track, but I forgot to close it to everyone else. So when we got online to check our mileage, we were surprised to find that we were joined by 10 extremely eager runners from all over the world, most of whom had already put in over 15 miles. WTF? I don't think they understand the purpose of the challenge, which is to just make sure we're all at the same place in our training. Since I created the challenge I could have just canceled it, but I didn't have the heart to because some of them were working so hard to win the damn thing. Dad created a new one that starts today though, so we'll have our own challenge going at the same time to keep us on track.

I'm really looking forward to mapping out some running routes for the longer runs on Saturdays. I'm hoping to find beautiful places I can drive to each week that will make the runs seem less cumbersome. And I'll be sure to bring my camera along so you can experience them with me!