Training Tunesday

My marathon this month is in Napa, California and it's a trail marathon. So a lot of my focus has been to get some trail running in so my legs will be ready for some tough terrain. I actually have a trail system practically in my backyard so it has worked out perfect. On Satuday I decided to do my long run with 10 miles of trail thrown in. I only did 16 total which ended up taking me 3 hours but miles on the trail are definitely not going to be in the 8 min/mi range! And along with other parts of the country, we had beautiful fall scenery all around...

When we reached our highest point of elevation, we were at 7500 ft!

The trail is pretty groomed but there are some rocky sections to navigate as well.

Ran under some fallen trees....

I think the peak of the leaves changing colors was last weekend but we still had lots of beautiful color.

The trail is mostly single track which makes it so you can't run side by side with a friend but we still had a blast!

Yes, this is a mountain lion paw print. I should have put my hand down by it to compare size, but it was the size of my hand! It was most definitely a mama, not a cub. I've known there to be mountain lion & cougars up in the hills, but have never seen them. We saw these prints about 5 times through the trail and they didn't follow the trail, they cut across the trail and then up the mountain and then we'd see them again on the next switch back! We were definitely scared. We even heard it... not good. I definitely have the fear in me now. Next time my friend and I will do this with more people. fyi - if you ever chance to meet a mtn lion or cougar, put hands up in the air and appear as large as possible, and slowly back away keeping eye contact. Hopefully they'll let you go... Hopefully you're not ever in that situation!

This Saturday, I have another long trail run planned in another section of the area. We're supposed to have gorgeous, unseasonable warm temps so I'm sure it will be amazing! I absolutely love trail running. It's such a nice change of routine especially during the autumn. Hopefully you can find some trails to run this season too!

So I've come down from my intense day yesterday. I slept like a baby last night, finally.  So relieved the presentation went well.  For Tunesday, I wanted to leave you with the song that played during my intro, it really got all the kids hyped up before I came out to speak.  However the version I used was an instumental and chorus - minus the rap verses!  Enjoy the live version...it definitely gets you pumped!  : )