Hagg Lake Trail Runs!

Whew...a sigh of relief. Hagg Lake is now part of yesterday and Stacey and I can fill our spare time with what else but....training. Saturday was absolutely perfect in every way. The race went off perfectly. The weather was sunny and dry and therefore the trails were in great conditions keeping the injuries to a bare minimum. We were home and done by 6:30 p.m. Every year in mid February my mind and spare time is consumed with Hagg Lake activities. It's not really that overwhelming since we everything well lined out. But, since we are both perfectionist we worry about every little detail and want to be sure we put on a great event where folks have good fun. Since it's the opening race of the Oregon Trail Series we get to see a lot of trail running friends from all over. All eager to get the party started for the year so the feelings of enthusiasm are most definitely contagious. In the past there has sort of been a tradition of "Hagg in Drag" or men in skirts. But this year Sean took the costumes to a whole new level. He walked up dressed like Richard Simmons and I swear the likeness was too much. Good thing I was dehydrated or I would have wet my pants laughing so hard. It was hysterical! The best part is he runs fast and that outfit didn't get in the way of another great run for him.

Now that Hagg is over it's time to focus. Oh....just in time to taper for Coyote. Well not so fast. One more week of hard training then a taper. Last week was a planned recovery and I needed it. My body was having all sorts of squeaks, twinges and just plain fatigue. I milked the recovery runs for all they were worth and my M-Pace and T-Pace run both got cut short. My body was just not in the game. I listened and felt it would be best to go with the fatigue and bring it this week. Yesterday I had a KPR run and Micheal joined me. I was ready to cut it short if I felt any overly fatigued muscles scream as my left leg, hip and knee were not in good working condition. It all ended up awesome....Thanks Micheal who suggested I make some subtle but effective changes to my stride. I will write more on this later as I gather more data. Anyway we ran the 15 miles on Lief at 7:40 pace, nice! I am back in action so that full week of serious recovery paid off.

This Saturday Steve is putting on a Fat Ass run at Powell Butte. Details to come. I have my 2009 race schedule done! I will post my plans soon but I am excited about all the races coming in the near future. I am leading the run clinic at Lululemon Athletica in the month of March. The run starts at 6 p.m. from the store in the Pearl District. Please come out. More on this later too.