Friday!

Happy friday, friends!  I'm not sure you'll get any random facts out of me today.  This week has just been too long and my brain is too tired to come up with anything.  This rain, which I have been trying to ignore all week, is finally starting to piss me off.  Up in NY it forced my grandparents to evacuate their home and caused my parents to spend the past 48 hours pumping water out of the basement.  I can only imagine what condition the race course is going to be in for the half marathon tomorrow.  Grumble grumble grumble. Has the weather been a major inconvenience to anyone else this week?

Let's try something a little different today. You leave a question about me in the comments and I'll update this post to give all the answers.  You'll then have random facts about me and I won't have to pull a brain muscle thinking them up myself. Have at it!

UPDATE: This is going to be my first trail half, my fourth half over all.  I confess, when I step on the trail tomorrow morning it will be my first trail run ever. I do not recommend this training strategy. I'm doing this race because it fits nicely into my full marathon training schedule, which has been done 98% on roads.  The fact that this half is on a trail is coincidence.

If you don't subscribe to Runner's World, you missed out on a special issue earlier this year devoted entirely to trail running. From what I've learned (and clearly not from experience) is that your fuel and hydration needs are pretty different, in addition to altering the usual footwear and clothing that you generally use on the roads. Depending on the location of the trail, you can experience significant weather changes. Invest in a camelbak or other hydration backpack. I don't generally carry a phone with me when I run, but I will be for all my trail experiences because of the isolation factor. I also imagine that my pace is going to be slower and my stride is going to be quite different as I try to pay closer attention to the ground immediately in front of me. A lot more looking down and a lot less looking forward. I'd also expect to do some walking on steeper or less traveled areas, something that I feel is a worse case scenario (just for me personally) on a road run whereas walking on trails is sometimes a necessity.

I'd love for any trail runners out there to jump in here, correct me where I'm wrong, and add some advice of your own.  For now, I'll be forging ahead tomorrow in shoes I don't mind getting muddy and a big smile on my face.