Phoneline Trail Run - Sabino Canyon

Ran (and partly hiked?) 8 miles on Phoneline trail today with my friend Shari, who is lots of fun to run with! We went up on the trail (above tram stop #7), took a very long connector trail down to the road and came back on the road. Supposedly, the road is closed, so we were hoping to avoid getting arrested! There weren't that many people out there, but we did run into a few other lawbreakers. The road and surrounding area is being restored after the 2006 flooding that almost destroyed the canyon.

Yes, it was a little rockier than I should have been doing during my alleged taper for the Zane Grey 50k. I must have selective memory with Phoneline trail - I always remember it being easier to run than it really is! Lots of beautiful wildflowers and the weather was perfect.
Here is Shari leading the way down on the Sabino Canyon connector trail. We were both wiped out from Saturday's race still and so the first mile of climbing on Phoneline trail was excruciating on our shins and calves. I swear, I really am going to taper now! I had also done Tumamoc Hill on Sunday, for a total of 40 miles last week. Tumamoc Hill has a 700 foot elevation gain in the 1.5 miles up. I did the last long switchback 4 times for an extra workout, so I did about 4 miles altogether. That long switchback is rumored to be a 20% grade, so my glutes were still hurting today! Tumamoc Hill is great to train on; I used it to train for the Phoenix Summit Challenge, which was 7 summits in 2 days, for a total of 22.5 miles and 6,000 feet elevation gain. Although it is pavement, the steepness of parts of it allow me to do numerous hill repeats without having to travel far (efficiency for the busy person!)

I came home and did a weight workout (the last one until the race on April 26th) while I watched Eli Stone online (love that show!)

Seriously, I will be taking it easy from here on out. On the Tucson Trail Runners Yahoo! group, there was lots of talk about all of the downed trees on the Highline trail (which is the trail that the Zane Grey race is on) and most likely, they will not be able to remove them before the race. We'll be doing a lot of tree hopping, in addition to running/hiking up and down hill the whole race. Here is what the website says about the race:

"Trails from the Highline to the top of the Rim are generally steep and rugged, with elevations ranging from 5,000 to 8,000 feet. The trail is in and out of canyons, along a "high line" on the Mogollon Rim where the climb to the top of the Rim becomes vertical. Hence the name of the trail. The trail can be very rocky for long stretches. There are several water crossings, and a lot of downed trees to climb over. However, the rewards are magnificent views, cool canyons and fulfillment of your masochistic needs."

Yeah - I paid for it. When, and I'm saying 'when', not 'if', I finish this race, it will be the biggest physical accomplishment in my life (well, if you don't count surviving the kayak accident on the Gila River, but I digress...I'll have to save that story for another day).

One last note; I think Shari and I are considering running the Tucson Marathon in December. I swore I would never do it - it is on pavement - but we are doing the Pemberton 50k in February and thought that it would be a great part of our training. Also, I really would like to see how I do on a screaming fast marathon course (it is all downhill - 2,200 feet drop in elevation over the course).

But, I'm getting ahead of myself, as usual. I'm going to focus on a lot of rest over the next 9 days until the race. Looks like I'm going to need it.