NEW TRAIL: Wellbarn Rd to Pa’san River Trail — Auberry, CA

First run in 14 days (since Avalon 50) and this girl is extemely happy!

Follow the trail until you get to this bridge — the scenery is just beautiful!

This gorgeous guy was on the trail was after me and my HoneyStinger Waffle!

You know what really amazes me about running? It’s that I seem to love the sport more and more with each passing year. And still, 23 years later, I am able to discover new passions within…Like trail Running. What excites me about trailrunning is the opportunity to discover hidden gems within the boundaries of our our everyday confinements.  Take this past Saturday as an example. While in Fresno, I was pleasantly surprised (again) to find a beautiful and challenging trail less than twenty minutes away. Seriously, what do you typically think of when Fresno pops up in your head? Probably nothing, which is exactly what I thought until a few months ago when I was introduced to so many beautiful trails along the outskirts of the town.

So rewind to two weeks ago and I was just finishing my first ever 50-mile race at Avalon. I had a great time, and was beyond happy with my results. My body, however, definitely needed some time to recover and that is exactly what I am still doing. During the first week I dedicated my extra time spinning and riding my road bike alongside D who needed to log long miles in preparation for his upcoming ultra. My second week of training included more spin and an extra Body Pump class.  Now on one hand, I wasn’t in a big hurry to start training for another race (my next race isn’t until the end of April), yet on the other, trailrunning is so fun and exciting that I want to rush to get out there again.

On this Saturday, I was beyond excited to run for the first time in two whole weeks! We were going to run this new 13.5 mile trail D had discovered the week prior with his friend Jason Wara.  What I liked about the start of this trail was the two-mile,very smooth downhill fire road that served as a nice warm-up.  Trying to take note of my body and aches and pains, I discovered that I felt really good. My sore achilles felt fine. Everything was good. Just passing this two-mile mark we turned onto a trailhead that would take us parallel to the San Joaquin River (gorge) with lots of ups and downs.  It didn’t take much time for me to realize my legs were extremely fatigued and probably from the Body Pump class a few days before. Or maybe, from spin — using all these different muscles surely had an effect on me. I struggled for nearly the entire run but was fortunate enough to be distracted by the great views of the valley around us. This trail continued until we crossed the final bridge that took us across the San Joaquin River. This bridge was massive and allowed us an even better view of our surroundings. We paused here for a while making conversation with a gentlemen that runs a dog rescue. He was accompanied by several other people and together must have had at least 15 dogs amongst them. Finally, we headed back to the car. I found that my knee was really annoying me during the steep downhill decents. I think this is just another side-effect from the downhill pounding I experienced at Avalon (imagine running the last two miles of a 50-mile race downhill on pavement). With only two miles to go, we headed up that slow incline to the car and I was relieved. It was a great day, we ran pretty hard, the trail was beautiful and I decided that I would take another week off and cross train — no big deal, my running shoes will be there waiting for me when I get back. 😀

Check out this awesome trail here or here.