The East Boulder Trail got a face lift this summer. The trails around the north side of the water tank were filled with gravel. And a new section was built that meanders up the east side of the tank until rejoining the old trail at the top of the hill. It’s very nice to see this trail maintenance but this trail was already fairly pedestrian and now it’s even more so. I miss the deep ruts.

Still, the trail surface matters less than the hills this trail offers. There are no steep climbs like you would find on a mountain trail, but they are good hills nonetheless. I figure it might be similar enough to the hills in the Bandera 100K to serve as a good training ground. Paired with 5000 feet of altitude, it’s relatively easy to spike your heart rate on this trail.

I ran the trail backwards Saturday, parking at the trailhead off Valmont instead of in the Heatherwood neighborhood. That set me up to run the large loop around the water tank, since that was my turn-around point. It made for an 8.25 mile run. I felt strong on the hills but ran super slow, for me, a nearly 12 minute per mile pace. It was hot.

I’ve been focusing my training on learning to fuel, something as important as putting in the miles when it comes to ultras. It was too hot for me to eat but I had no problem downing 32 ounces of electrolytes in 98 minutes. I want to target drinking 1 to 1.5 500ml water bottles per hour in Bandera. It shouldn’t be overly hot in January but the Texas humidity is almost the same as heat because it keeps your sweat from evaporating.

I have two plans to prepare for the Texas humidity. The first is to wax off my body hair. Sweat evaporates more efficiently on hairless skin. The improvement is marginal but it’s real. My second plan is to buy a membership in the October timeframe to the rec center so that I can sit in a steam sauna 3 or 4 times a week. That heat adaptation process purportedly results in a 5% to 8% performance improvement. I’ll see if that works to condition my blood plasma for the heat.

I’m also going to work on my speed. I think I’m in shape to be running much faster but I’ve forgotten how to run fast. So today, I’m planning to run 400 meter intervals on the track. I’ll do them each week until my form adapts to running with a faster cadence and longer stride. I’m currently running about 170 steps per minute with my stride under a full meter. The track should improve that. We’ll see. Good trail running requires a blend of cadence and rhythm. I’m going to work on both.