They lied. Everything is not bigger in Texas.
For the last couple weeks I have been down in Austin and San Antonio, Texas, for a couple academic conferences and some research in a few archival repositories.  Fun fun fun. And, rather than sit around bored in my hotel rooms at night when I didn’t have stuff planned with colleagues and friends, I went running. These were three of the sweatiest runs of my life.  Wow.  The humidity.  Overall, it was a lot of fun to explore some new places. However, due to my IT bands and stress fracture on my left ankle…I am supposed to be only increasing my weekly mileage slowly – 10% per week, right?  Well… I kind of blew that. Instead of going 7-9 miles max for the week, I did 15+ over 6 days.  The IT bands got worse throughout, and now my left ankle stress fracture is a bit sore again – which it hasn’t been for a few weeks. It had been 100% pain-free for a while.  And…it kind of feels like an identical stress fracture is developing on my right ankle.  So… I may be taking it easy for a couple weeks now – maybe just keeping in shape on my bike until the Wasatch Back Ragnar at the end of June.

In any case – here’s where I explored.

Friday, 30 May 2014

Emma Long Metropolitan Park
4.6 miles in 52:53 @ 11:24 min/mile and 318 ft. elevation

Trail along Turkey Creek.

It was late about 6:30 or so when I hit the trail, which thankfully stays pretty well in the trees along Turkey Creek – so not much direct sunlight.  Nevertheless, it was so humid, so sweaty. I felt like superman bounding up the “hills” along the trail. 300 ft over 4.6 miles…I guess the Wasatch has gotten me used to a bit more climbing than that.

Monday, 2 June 2014

Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge – Doeskin Ranch Trails
5.1 miles in 53:08 @ 10:24 mi/mile and 654 ft. elevation

This looked like a promising way to get out of the city, and it was way out there. Cell phone dead zone. I was expecting something a bit more dramatic when I saw the word “canyonlands,” but again I think Utah has spoiled me. The trails were nice, but a lot of it was exposed to the sun and it was hot. I went through 2 liters of water and still guzzled down a gatorade when I got back to the car. I also found it funny (didn’t get a picture! Yarg!) that on country roads, when there is a church ahead, they have yellow caution signs that say “Church.”  I don’t know if Texas gets the irony in that.  Yellow signs are for warning. Warning! Church! I didn’t realize rural Texas would be so anti-religion. 😉

Thursday, 5 June 2014

Canyon Park Madrone Trail
7.5 miles in 1:28:25 @ 11:45 min/mile and 403 ft. elevation

This was about 1/2 between Austin and San Antonio (off west of San Marcos) and I decided to run it as I was driving between the two, leaving the archives in Austin and going to a conference in San Antonio. Knowing it would be the middle of the day, I packed a full 2 liters in my hydration vest and even put on sun screen. Thankfully, it was overcast. But wow – it still felt hot and humid.  The trail is on a peninsula which appears to be made of limestone. Much of the trail was exposed sharp craggly (sp? even a word?) bedrock limestone.  Sharp stuff. Oddly, it appears to be mostly used by mtn. bikers, and I could see that rock just shredding your sidewalls on the tires.  In any case, the full Madrone Trail packs 7.5 miles of trail into a pretty small area. That means constant twists and turns and doublebacks.  At one point I came upon a couple deer and they spooked – bounding off. Then, the trail doubled back on itself and I came upon the same deer again, about 60 seconds later. They bounded off…and the trail meandered back to where they had run to another 2-3 times.  Sorry guys. Around 3-4 miles my left IT band was really screaming, and as you can see on the map, there are plenty of places where I could bail and hit the west side trail back up to my car. With the north loop done, I thought I would at least do the east loops…and then maybe go back to the car.  Then, I decided I would at least do some of the big south loop…I ended up doing the whole thing. Towards the end I had that wonderful moment where you are so glad you DIDN’T turn back early, and instead pushed through for the whole thing.  My legs disagreed over the next couple days. 😉