Castlewood Hill Challenge

In light of my post yesterday, this morning I decided to go get some hill practice. One of the best places around St. Louis to do this is Castlewood State Park. In case you're not familar with it, Castlewood is just outside of St. Louis in Ballwin and is a great park all around. They've got 5 or 6 trails good for walking, hiking, running, mountain biking, and even one for horseback riding. There's apparently some swimming, too, but I'm not sure where that is.There's a race there every year called the Castlewood Cup and I imagine it's pretty grueling. It's in February so depending on the weather, it can be icy for the race as well. I've been out there a handful of times, but hadn't been since sometime early this year. I had no specific goal in mind; just to get in some hills. Foolishly, I did have some idea in my head that I might be able to run the whole time, which I couldn't do even when I was in better hill climbing shape.
I tackled Grotpeter Trail first. It starts out pretty tame and unassuming, but then begins a very long uphill ascent. Needless to say, my legs and butt were burning in no time. The trails are all pretty well kept, but some of the hillier parts definitely get a little treacherous. I was hoping to see some wildlife, but I guess it is winter and not too many animals are out running around.
Grotpeter is about 3 miles, and after I finished it up, I still felt like I had the energy to keep going. So, I headed out onto the Lone Wolf Trail. This trail is a bitch. It winds and winds higher and higher, and is hell. At one point, I seriously felt like my legs might not keep moving. This was while I was walking, as running was impossible, but I wonder if trying to continue running might be a better idea, as at least there's some momentum keeping you going. Lone Wolf Trail does have some very nice bluff lookouts. By the time I finished this second trail, I had done about 5 miles and definitely felt like I got a good workout in. One of my goals pre-injury was to eventually get to the point where I could tackle all these hills and not have to walk up any of them. I think that sounds like a good goal to set again this year.

Distance: 5.01 miles  Average pace: 12:30/mile



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