"It's all downhill from here" takes new meaning

Since my bike is in the shop, I decided to take a run at Castlewood this morning. It was my third or fourth time trail running out there, and my first time running Grotpeter (I've biked that one a few times, in both directions) and Lone Wolf (again, biked it on several occasions). ...continued

I got up early enough this morning to get a dozen bagels while they were still fresh, then came home to eat one quickly before heading to the 'Wood. Took a bit of a different route this time, too, to change up the scenery. I parked and was ready to hit the trail by 9:30.

While there were already plenty of other cars in the lot--it was crowded but by no means full--I only passed a handful of people during my run. On the 3-mile Grotpeter loop, there was an older couple walking right at my start, then two separate bikers going in the same direction I was headed. Nobody else. It was like a private trail, just for me.

Trail running is probably one of my new favorite workouts. Yeah, it's slower than street running or even Forest Park--I ran between 8:30-9:00 miles today--and noticeably harder on the knees and ankles, but the sensory experience while running more than makes up for it. Instead of car exhaust and garbage fumes burning your lungs, you suck in cool, damp air full of greenery. The ground actually has character, with each step different from the previous and the next, sometimes over rocks and roots, other times on dirt or fine gravel, occasionally on tall grass or low-growing mosses. Quite a difference from pavement, blacktop, more pavement. And the isolation, ah the isolation. I'm very glad I got out there early, because it looked like it was picking up a bit by the time I left. While running on the road, I like a radio to block out the ambient noise: traffic, construction, other pedestrians. Here, I skipped the music in favor of the crunching of stones under my feet, the rustling of leaves as squirrels scurry around, and the buzzing of locusts.

One interesting myth is that downhill is easier than uphill. Running up the first quarter-mile of Lone Wolf taxed my legs and lungs, no doubt, but the last mile down took absurd amounts of balance and concentration. Looking at some of the switchbacks and stretches of singletrack with straight drop below made me wonder how the hell I ever did this on the bike and lived to tell about it!

On the day, I chalked up right around 40 minutes of running time, plus warmup and cool down and a short walking break between Grotpeter and Lone Wolf. Ended the workout with a nice long stretch reminiscent of the routine we did before and after track practices in high school, then took the scenic way home.