2.5 hour trail run

The past two weeks I really had to amp up my training for the next upcoming trail run. The Escarpment Trail Run. An 18 mile (30 milometer)  trail , trekking through treacherous roots, rocks, boulders, and cliffs in the beautiful Catskills. My kind of run! My goal was to run for 2.5 hours, and to climb and descend as many hills as I physically could at medium intensity. And ending the run with the steepest climb, and the steepest downhill of the trails. There will be no shortage of technical climbing and descending on the ETR. So these trails are perfect training for the ETR. Several of the climbs go straight up. They are grueling, maybe 17%-18% at the steepest section ( I would like to find a way to accurately measure gradient ).  And very technical. I would give the most technical portions of the trail an 8.5 out of 10. I have seen worse! but all in all, great terrain if your looking for technicality and challenging climbs. I brought back with me a bag of goods that I had left on a part of the trail where I would intersect often. A power bar, GU, extra water & gatorade. Running one mile out with a string bag full of water and gatorade is quite the challenge. There is a river at the intersect, so I can cool off if it gets too hot. On my run, I summit the three 'tall' mountains of the run. Each hover around 1150-1200'. Not much compared to the large summits of ETR. 3450' and 3900'. but, hey, that's all I got around here. I was feeling great the whole run, I didn't push to hard on the climbs. I felt strong, I didn't twist my ankle at all, nor did I trip over anything! that's an accomplishment in itself. I may trip or twist the ankle a few times back there, but being alert and strong can prevent this. ETR is less than two weeks out! I feel good knowing I got in a solid 12 / 2.5hr trail run. This week I'll get in two intense strength training workouts and few 4-5mile fill ins. next week I'll push an 8-9 mile trail run and 1 low-intensity strength workout. I'm looking forward to suffering in the mountains alongside some really cool, always amusing trail runners!


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