The week started with one of the best runs of the entire year. The workout was simple 2x15min@Z3, which I decided to on a nearby segment that’s approximately 3km at 9% split in two climbing sections and a valley in between. I estimated this segment, which includes a fair amount of stairs, would take me approximately 30 minutes to run. As you can see, I’m not too worried about hitting the workouts exactly. I also never watch my heart rate or set my running zones, because I regard those zones as sufficiently imprecise to be more harmful than helpful. Instead, I benchmark my running zones against cycling zones, which I’ve measured over many years using multiple power meters. So when I do a running workout at Z3, I’m thinking about how it feels to do a cycling effort at Z3, which is a zone that can be measured exactly using a power meter.

(Unlike cycling power, running power cannot be measured exactly because there isn’t a medium such as a pedal or a crank from which you could measure the power that’s being transmitted. Like many other metrics in endurance sports, the running power numbers that you see online bear, at best, a tenuous relationship with the thing they are claimed to measure.)

Anyway, back to the run. What made this run magical was the fact that I got to the trailhead about 1 hour before dusk (which was, incidentally, also when the parking gates were going to be closed, adding a nice sense of urgency to the workout). So after the first mile, I never saw anyone on the trails. As I reached the top of the climb, I could see the sun retreating in the horizon. It was a great reminder that trail running is ultimately about the location in which it takes place. You could undoubtedly get more training benefit from doing your workouts on an uphill treadmill or stair master or something, but then you’d miss out on connecting with nature, which is valuable in and of itself.

The cherry on top of this perfect outing was that I didn’t get locked in the parking lot despite arriving 15 minutes after the sun had set.