Red Rocks & an Easy 10

View of Cathedral Rock (approx. mile 5)

The running trails around Flagstaff have got to be some of the best in the country. And for Fall and Winter running nothing beats the trails in Sedona. I don't plan on writing after each run, but Mark and I went down to Sedona today for an easy 10 and we both were feeling so thankful that we live in Northern Arizona. 

My run yesterday morning was a chilly one, with below freezing temps. in the forest behind my house. It was a great run, but at 7:30 am it was just so darn cold. In Sedona today the temperature was in the mid-50s in early morning, perfect for running. The trails were  awesome; a good mix of challenging rocky climbs and winding, sandy downhill stretches. We ran around Bell Rock before heading out toward Cathedral Rock, then back to the trailhead, exactly 10 miles (good planning, Mark). We were back sipping coffee at a local cafe before the trails became crowded with tourists and late-rising locals.  -jea

Margaritas and Running

Last night after a 3 hour bike ride,  I felt it was necessary to have a great dinner of home made burritos and margaritas, not knowing that I would be running 16 miles today.

So Jen is training for a marathon and her training run today was 16 miles.  We talked about this early in the week and decided that we would go on the NATRA run to Fisher Point together and she would finish the other 8 miles on the road and I would tag along on the bike.

Another bright idea this morning and I mentioned maybe we could just keep running together and do all 16 miles on the Arizona Trail instead of her running on the road.  Lets just say the first 3 miles of the run today I kept smelling salt and lime.

We ran with the NATRA group to Fisher Point and a group picture, we then headed down the trail towards Walnut Canyon Road.

We saw a bull elk right after we left the NATRA run and passed a couple of other runners, but besides that it was a very peaceful run.

Just got home and received a text from Joel about running 10 miles tomorrow.  Of course I couldn't let my running partner down, although a leg ice bath may be in the works tomorrow night.

Are We Crazy?

I don't know how I got to this point, but I have to do TransRockies. Like Mark, I'm obsessed. Of course, it's easy to talk about now because our serious training doesn't have to start for a while.

When the idea first popped up over the summer there was no way I was going to agree to run 115 miles over 6 days across the Continental Divide. So what's changed? I can't really say.  I love to run on trails and I expect this staged race to be about as awesome as trailrunning gets.

TransRockies requires participants to enter the race in two-person teams. I've read that choosing your teammate is just as important as your training. Mark and I have been running together for just one season, but we seem pretty well matched. We've both have a pretty good base level of fitness and we've trained together before, for the Imogene Pass Run. Somehow, over a few weeks, we've talked each other into entering TransRockies, and somehow we'll be ready in August when the race starts.  -jea

Preparation

This is Mark posting.

Funny how this Trans Rockies race went from a "hell no" a few months back to becoming an obsession.

Even during our run at Imogene when my body shut down and I felt there was no way I was going to run Trans Rockies, the urge to run something this epic just won't go away.

I had pretty much put it out of my mind, when Joel asked me on a Kachina Trail run if I was still interested in running Trans Rockies, which I responded not really (only because Joel didn't want to do it earlier).

He also mentioned a meeting about the race happening at Bigfoot BBQ (which, little to Joel's knowledge, I had already planned on attending).

After that meeting we pretty much decided it was worth an undertaking.  So now we sit at Lumberyard having a beer and cheese fries, discussing possibilities of sponsorship, training, and life in general.

More to come...