The Life Of Riley

95 degrees.  A little too warm for me.  7:45 pace.

Hit Hobble Creek Canyon with Zac.  Ran up 3.5 for a little incline and then back to the truck.  Nice easy run.  85 degrees with a little breeze.  It was great weather.

I don't care if I ever run on a road again.  Drove up Payson Canyon and ran the Benny Creek Trail.  All alone, it made for a nice and peacful getaway.  I went 2.65 miles up then back down.  I have never hit a trail with that much incline before.  I was in low gear; it felt like I was doing 7-1/2 min pace but I was really doing 15's.  It was awesome.  I saw a couple of snakes, a bunch of dear, and all sorts of other little creatures cruising around.  No traffic to worry about, only bears :).  I am definately hitting more trails in the future.  Then the run back down, I averaged just over a 9 min pace.  There are areas so steep that I had to side step and that slowed my pace but it was definately and incredible run.  Total time was 80 minutes but I did stop and take in the scenery a few times without stopping Mr. Garmin.  Oh, and I reserected the old Asic's, not my favorite shoe but I did not want to damage the new Black Launches (best shoe ever).

Got a pair of trail shoes today (Asic Attacks).  Went up to Benny Creek trail and got in just over 1/2 mile when a mighty thunder buster hit.  The trail is steep and when wet it gets pretty dangerous so being alone I thought it would be safe to return to the car before I ended up broken and stranded miles from home all alone.  I drove back down the canyon, went to the house and changed tires (Brooks Launchs) and headed out on the road.  Ran up Elk Ridge and back down along the orchards to my house.  I went from 68 degrees and heavy rain up Payson Canyon to 1,000 degrees and sunny running up Elk Ranch Road.  Quite a change in elements.  All in all a nice run.  Not real fast but some good ups and downs.