Another double workout day

You can't have mud without rain and we've certainly had our fair share of rain here in the land of mild seasons.  Of course rain alone does not a good mud make.  Clay is the key ingredient to a soft, sticky, shoe sucking mud and the Fremont Older Open Space Preserve has plenty of clay in the top soils.

So what's the net of the net?  As any experienced trail runners hailing from our muddy lands will tell you, it means an outsole made of, well.....mud.  Even the most agressive outsoles can't clear mud from between the lugs.  By the end of this mornings run the bottom of my shoes looked just like the trail I ran on.  Below is what my shoes looked like BEFORE running - squeaky clean.

Fellow NB Excelsior teammate Jonathan Kimura, his friend (and dog) and I headed out for an easy 6 mile hilly run on these mud caked trails.  It was perfect running weather out there - sunny, cool, light breeze.  The mud wasn't keeping other trail users away and we saw many other runners, hikers, mountain bikers and even a few folks on horseback.  Here is what my shoes looked like AFTER I beat most of the caked-on, baked-on mud off.

As you can see from the course profile on Strava there's not much flat at Fremont Older.  There are however excellent view of the entire South Bay.

Since I'm on the "if a little is good more is better" training plan I ran again this afternoon with my bride of 11 years.  Just an easy 4.7 miles on the Stevens Creek Trail.  Check out our blistering pace here: http://app.strava.com/runs/6746046.

Total running for the day - 10+ miles.  Beer me.