Back for the final push

Had a mid-training dip there coinciding with a hiking excursion up Mt. Katahdin here in Maine.  Mt. Katahdin is Maine’s highest peak at 5267 feet and is considered a pretty rugged climb due to its remoteness, long approach, elevation gain, and steep ascent.  I went with my father, brother-in-law and two nephews.  We went up the Abol Trail and down the Hunt Trail which (for northbound thru-hikers) is the final 5 miles of the Appalachian Trail – Baxter Peak of Katahdin being the trail’s northern terminus.  There was one thru-hiker at the top who had finished the Trail that day.  He had left Georgia (Springer Mountain) on May 4^th.

 

We had a beautiful day with low temps and bright sunshine.  I still managed to get a sunburn but nothing like my last trip up four years ago – so I consider it a success.  The loop was 9 miles but I managed to get 13 by running the two miles from the Hunt trail back to Abol to get the car then hiking a mile back into the woods to meet up with them to hike the final mile together (I descended a bit faster than them).

 

Needless to say, my quads were very sore for two days following so I didn’t run.  But today I was only slightly sore so I put in 90 minutes and got 12 miles for the effort.  10 @ 6:58 pace and 2 miles to cooldown.  Felt good the whole way but the calves have tightened up now so I’ll have to pay attention tomorrow to how they’re doing.