Going off road...

A couple of weeks back, sleeping in won out over meeting my team for a scheduled Sunday morning run.  That has happened a few times lately.  I suppose the candle is being burnt at both ends and it catches up with you every once in a while.  Who knows...  Either way, once I wiped the sleep out of my eyes I decided to go hit the trail at Stone Mountain.

One of the bonuses to training with a group is that it has introduced me to routes that I might not have taken on my own.  Take the trail at Stone Mountain Park for example.  I mean, HELLO, I have spent 5 years running loops around that mountain and never once ventured onto the trail.  Once I did, it was true love.

As far as trails go, I would imagine that the one at Stone Mountain might be a good one to try as your first.  It is very well marked (although on the rocky sections it might take you a minute to locate the hash marks) and really how lost could you get knowing that the mountain has a road going all the way around it?  It isn't like you are going to be lost in the wilderness for 40 days.

             

             

If you are new to trail running, I would probably get some trail running shoes.  There tend to be a lot of up and down, climbing, crossing streams, etc.  Trail running shoes will give you better grip but also you won't trash your regular running shoes.  I use Inov-8 Trail shoes but there are a lot of brands out there.

You should know too that road running times do not equal trail running times.  It may take me 45 minutes to run 5 miles, it takes me over an hour and some change to do 5 miles on the trail.  There is something kind of freeing about it, just running out there in the woods.  Kind of takes you back to being a kid again.  Assuming you played in the woods a lot as a kid like I did...  I also love that I am able to see sides of the park that I normally wouldn't see if I am just following the paved road.

Hope you all had a great weekend!