BCG night run

As much as I'm over there, one would think the Barton Creek Greenbelt trails would get boring. Nope. But I really get excited when it's time for a night run over there!

And really, super excited when it's a speedwork night!

The schedule called for a fartlek workout along the Shady loop. Ten minute warm up, then three minutes hammering followed by two minutes easy followed by three minutes hammering and so on. Running fast on the BCG during the day is difficult, so doing it at night, with my tiny green flashlight, is downright treacherous. It's a very technical trail, tons of rocks and roots and steep inclines and uneven ground. But hey, gotta get the miles in.

As a bonus, Melissa and Stayfree showed up at the start for the Hill Country Trail Runners weekly trail jog, and I was able to convince them both to come along for a tougher run. And we had a blast! Warm-up down the Hill of Life and across Barton Creek, over to the Shady Loop. Night fartleks on these trails rocked! No moon tonight, so all you had was your flashlight. Jumping from rock to rock, root to root, ducking under trees, crawling up the steep hills, can't beat it! Tons of fun, but if you lose concentration for a split second it's gonna cost you, as Melissa's possibly broken finger can attest!

Hard down the line, slow down the Hill of Death, we were supposed to cross back over Barton Creek and head back to the Hill of Life. We unanimously decided that taking a shot at the hump in the dark was too good to pass up. The hump is just as technical as Shady loop, but the trail is a lot harder to see, especially at night. Had to take it a bit slower to make sure we didn't get too lost, but we had a ball. Eventually found our way up and over the hump, and caught a dry stream bed back down to Barton Creek. Across BC and back to the HOL for a grand total of one hour and forty five minutes of night trails.