Okay, so trail running is hard work. I wanted to do a 10km shakedown/fitness tester in anticipation of Kaapsehoop this weekend but, with kids, only one of us can race at a time so I let me wife do the CSIR in Pretoria yesterday and the only other short race I could find for Sunday was the 13km Land Rover Modderfontein. First trail running lesson for me: Forget about pace, it means nothing. I normally negative split so I zoned in on what I thought would be my comfortable road pace for the first five kays. It wasn't comfortable after five kays. Second trail running lesson: You're always working. Even in the flat sections, they were so twisty that there's very little opportunity to find a groove and sit there. Third trail running lesson: I rely on other runners a lot. In a road race, I like to latch onto a pack or a couple of runners at a pace just on the edge of my comfort zone and use them to tow me along until I feel I need to change up my pace later in the race. On trail, you end up on your own and it's REALLY hard motivating yourself to push when you don't have someone else's heels to stare at or some loud footsteps right behind you. Fourth trail running lesson: this wasn't even a technical trail. Which makes me currently a dirt roadie. But the big lesson; I loved it. That was hard work, I had my time ambitions humbled, but it was a great experience. I'm looking forward to switching over to trail after Comrades.
