SHT-Duluth and more spring trail running...

How lucky are we with this incredible early spring weather?

We made the most of it last weekend (can't believe it's Friday already by the time I am posting this - another crazy week), heading up to the Duluth section of the SHT on Saturday. Myself, Vale, Eric, Kami and Jim (male masters - meet your new competition!) left the Twin Cities around 5AM and met up with Lisa, Ron and Jeff at the Grand Portage trailhead in Jay Cooke State Park for an 8AM start.

It started out a little chilly and with the wind in places I was glad to have worn a light jacket (super light - the north face women's hydrogen jacket - it weighs a couple oz and is perfect for a day like this).

We took a detour to stand atop Elys Peak (towering over the St. Louis river at 1,250ft!)...



Along the way we met up with Jeff's wife Patrice several times - it was awesome to have crew! And Lisa had also stashed some food and water near the Zoo area (did someone really ask what's in the Zoo? :) The only downside to the whole day was seeing that horses had been through here and mucked up parts of the still very soft trail. And worse than that there was horse crap in the middle of the trail in several spots. We came across the culprits just before our last section in the Piedmont area and did not get a very pleasant reaction from them. I hope we can identify them as Lisa confirmed they should not have been on the trail despite their claims.

After Lisa's wonderful hospitality (and delicious salsa & beer) - we had an pretty entertaining ride back to the car in the Honda FIT - how many can YOU fit in a FIT?

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Sunday morning I had a lovely run at Afton with Alicia H who has just moved to the Twin Cities from Duluth. I'd only met Alicia briefly at a few races last year so it was alot of fun getting to know her better and chatting about various races etc. Especially her attempt at the Arrowhead 135 earlier this year. Some day...

The snow was almost gone from the ski hills and the park is getting ready for the year ahead burning off various sections over the past week.




The rest of the week has been pretty non-eventful. As usual when I don't run much my hanstrings tighten up - though this week was worse than usual. I went for an easy run with Karen on the Luce Line on Wednesday night and had to walk after a few miles. Not good! But the next morning my hamstrings were so much looser. Though I did tweak my inner left one Monday evening in hot yoga so that's bothering me a little - I can't get into Star pose at all as it's just too tight to stretch laterally.

Dandayamana–Bibhaktapada–Paschimotthanasana

But apart from that I've had some really good classes this week - finally being able to balance in Toe Stand with hands in prayer (ok, for all of 2 seconds)...

Padangustasana

But more on hot yoga later (soon!).

Taking a half day today and heading down to Zumbro for a few hours to hang out, support, heckle... looks to be a beautiful day. Hopefully the weather holds for tomorrow's fun at Chippewa.