Raid Training Run

Met up with one of my two teammates for the Giant's Rib Raid for our first team trail run.  We are both very cognizant of not straining our bodies too soon, so we decided on ~15K.  My roomie wanted to go up to visit his parents, and since the Bruce Trail runs next to their property, we had ourselves a venue!

Terrain: Field, forest, rocks, trail, road, snow and ice
Weather: Overcast but warm at just under zero

The first part of the run was in shin-deep snow, and I realized that I have lost my deep-snow conditioning, having just been running on flat roads for months.  I was quite a bit behind CK, struggling to lift my legs up.  Once we got onto the forested trail, speed was a bit less of an issue.  We took turns leading so that I could get a bit of a break but so that he could set the faster pace.  I think that is good team strategy.  He also had the advantage of orienteering shoes, so he attacked the icy trail, while I had to be more cautious, especially running along the cliff of the Escarpment.  The trail was just beautiful, a really great choice.

What would orienteering be without getting lost?  We were chatting and got off trail and onto a road too soon, so we had to do the loop we planned backwards, haha.  At least our intuition told us that we were not where we were supposed to be!  The road run was nice, even if we had a very long uphill.  Then back down towards Noisy River on the Bruce trail, which was a 3min 1K dash!  Then some country roads to go back home.  I thought it would take us at least 2hrs, but we finished in 1:49, yay!

Workout Nutrition: BCAAs with lemon in the Camelback (600mL), 1 Clif gel at 1hr (will probably need more)

What followed was a lot of good team-talk about how we want to manage our race and our different paces and abilities.  Can't wait to run with the whole team.

--Distance: 14.3K
--Duration: 1:49:00

Route Link