Finding the Right Training Run

I have been doing more resting than training but I am really beginning to feel like I am finally recovering from Rocky and it looks like I have done so without injury though I still have a couple of purple toenails. My next big challenge is the Jemez Mountain Trail 50-mile run and it is supposed to be one of the hardest 50-mile runs around. While I am certainly nervous about the race my big goal for this year is the Tahoe Rim Trail 100 and I have been trying to find routes behind the new house that will provide a lot of climbing without having to go all the way up onto the mountain, which still has a lot of snow on the high trails.

The Jemez 50-mile run has over 12,000 feet of climbing and the Tahoe Rim 100 has almost 20,000 feet of climbing. The run I came up with this weekend features 3400 feet of climbing in 10 miles and while I am not certain I can repeat it exactly because it included some false starts down some dead end trails I can closely replicate it in a manner that will provide me with a kind of loop that will probably provide me at least 3000 feet in 10 miles. This kind or running ends up being pretty slow and very difficult so I don’t get in a lot of miles but I do feel like I am gaining a lot of leg strength so I think after about a month and a half of scouting I have my Jemez/Tahoe training run.

The hardest part of the Tahoe Rim Trail is called the Red House Loop. According to the race video that loop accounts for the largest amount of drops in the entire course. The Red House Loop is 6.3 miles long with 2000 feet of elevation gain. It is the reason for my climbing loop.


Now all I have to do is repeat, repeat, repeat. While I don't have photos of the rockiest parts of my run that big wall of boulders above is actually part of my run, I go right up and that peak to the right is a part of the run that I go up one side and come down the other. It really is a joy to run.