Cedar Ridge Preserve 12/26/2010

Today was day one of my plan to run DFW area trails. I found a few close by that I knew were paved, too short, or were a pay to enter type of trail. Not what I was looking for.
Then I stumbled onto Cedar Ridge Preserve (thanks Trails.com). I'd heard of before when looking for mountain bike trails and usually just disregarded it because they don't allow bikes. They do not allow anything but hikers, walkers, and runners. From what I read it was 6 loops and roughly 6 miles. Exactly what I was looking for.
Contact Info:
Cedar Ridge Preserve
7171 Mountain Creek Parkway
Dallas, Texas 75249
972-709-7784

When I arrived there were about 20-30 cars parked. This initially concerned me. I don't like running around a lot of people. I wanted to enjoy the trails...alone!
I noticed one lady with a big German Shepard and signs saying pets must be on a leash, so I'm guessing pets are welcome.
Fortunately, I only saw a handful of people, all hikers, and all very polite. Well to me anyhow(see Angry Asian below). Here is a link to my route:
View Cedar Ridge Preserve 2010-12-26 in a larger map
Picture of the entry way into the preserve I took them on my way out....which is why they are nighttime shots...


So I started off...trails were very well marked. Very well maintained. Very enjoyable.
as you will notice I did about 7 miles but stopped to snap a pic of anything that caught my eye.
Here are a few of the trail:

Here are few of my favorite shots I got of the pond.
Right before I found this overlook picture below, there was an older Asian couple I passed. I said hello, they ignored me. I stopped to pull out my camera and the guy started yelling at some rocks. He then proceed to angrily kick all the loose rocks from the trail. I can only imagine he fell previously. I really, really really, wanted to ask the guy what he expected to find on a nature trail! I did get some satisfaction in the fact that I figured he busted his butt on a rock, AND that he'd probably never be back! And of course the view made me forget all about him.


So to wrap things up...their are 6 loops. Took me 7 miles. At the back of the preserve their was an awesome pond worth stopping and checking out(see pics above). The 2 difficult loops are as they are listed. Difficult. Not impossible or impassible, Just pretty steep climbs for the area! On 2 occasions I slowed to a walk and labored up. On several more occasions I felt these lungs burning as I gasped for air while climing. But like any good uphill....there is a downhill, these were typically fast and fun. A few parts of the trails were covered in leaves and became a bit slippery. Despite the full day of rain we had 2 days ago, the trails were in good shape. Only about a mile stretch became even slightly muddy. It wasn't anything sloppy and gooshy. Mostly just sticky.
The park closes at 6. I was minding my time closes. I started the last trail with 20 minutes left. I took a wrong turn and popped out in a neighborhood. I had to back track and as soon as I got back on trail I found a tower. Here is a pic I took from up there:

Made it back to my truck at 5:52pm I was the only vehicle left. Worth mentioning is: I did not see a single piece of trash at all anywhere! (this is very rare for the metroplex)
What a great day!



Here are the remainder of the pictures I thought were worth sharing. Makes it hard to believe this is only minutes outside of Dallas. And right in the mess of the DFW metroplex.

A few pictures at a stream crossing. In fact I believe it was the only stream crossing. There was a bench here that would of made a nice spot to sit and relax.

This tree stopped me in my tracks. Not sure why it did, but it sure makes a nice picture!And few of the view

-Jeremy-
www.crazyaboutultras.com

back at it....

o my blog has not been all that I hoped it would be.

I have 1 anonymous follower and my blogging has become a bit stale. I fear I have not even lived up to the title I have given it. “Elwell’s Running Adventures”. I had a few adventures. More setbacks though. After my most recent exploit: “Running for WILD”, in which I ran 105 miles through the DFW area in 30:01, I was terribly burned out on running. I followed this run up with a 25 mile pace run with my brother Jacob. He did a similar solo effort but went 160 miles. I think I over trained for my 105 miler. It was essentially like working a second job for 3 months. Then the day came and went and I questioned myself why I would want to do something like that ever again. Then 3 weeks later my younger brother does over 50 miles further. Then I had to ask myself “Does it ever end?” “Do we just keep running further and further?” “How much can my body AND MIND take of this?” My answer was, and still, is I just don’t know. Since September I haven’t completely quit running. I was still doing 5-10 miles a week with my dogs. I still maintain www.crazyaboutultras.com. I still pay close attention the upcoming races. I did however use my time to lift weights and get into a bit of mountain biking. I built up a decent 4x4 vehicle and took it off road a few times.

So I imagine you know where this is going.

I am really gaining a sense of adventure. Some one on expeditionportal.com called it “wanderlust”. That sums it up perfectly. I have been lusting to simply disappear into some deep forest land and truly enjoy nature. I have researched trails and forest all over the US. I know more 4x4 trails, mountain biking trails, assumed routes, and paths, but I have yet to actually ride them or drive them. I have a deep desire to throw caution to the wind and get rid of everything I own and simply hit the road.

Fortunately, for my loved ones, I have been working on a reasonable solution. I will keep my job. As miserable as it makes me sometimes, it still pays fairly well. That and I’m on my second semester of college. YES! After 10 years I have gone back to school.

But I still have that wanderlust to soothe.

My plans are to use my days off, my vacations, any free time I can russle up and start overlanding.

Overlanding: the self-reliant over land travel to remote destinations where the journey is the principle goal.

I will finish my vehicle and make it an adequate overland vehicle. It will be capable of sustaining myself, another person, and 2 dogs comfortably for up to a week or 2 at a time. Coupled with this, I will tote mountain bikes and running gear.

Did I forget to mention I am running again? I have signed up for the cowtown 50k. I am back to training. This time around I promise not to take it so serious it feels like a job. My goal is 4:30 finish time, or a top ten finish. There are a few other races that have captured my enthusiasm again. For now I will be sticking to 50k/50milers and working on building up a decent speed. I’ll leave the long 100/150/200miles to my younger brothers! I enjoy sleeping through the night….not running (or sleep running as we call it).

Back to overlanding…I want to travel to remote locations, backwoods, back country and wilderness areas. Some place that isn't a campground. Some place that isn't a massive tourist location. Somewhere that will require 4wheel drive to get to. I can setup a primitive camp site, i.e. tent only, and enjoy nature. Then, with my free time, I intend to explore further via mountain bike. If I don’t feel like mountain biking then I will run. If I don’t feel like running, I will hike. And if I don’t feel like doing anything at all….then I won’t.

Now I know this all sounds wonderful, but I have one weekend off every 3 weeks, and 2 weeks of vacation a year. Not necessarily the kind of time to do the exploring and traveling I have in mind. Especially seeing that Texas is only 3% public land and therefore I would be traveling quite awhile just to find some backcountry/wilderness to enjoy. To soothe my soul while I am unable to travel I will stay close to home. I have discovered tons of hiking/biking trails in the DFW area and Texas, as a mater of fact.

So in my days off or my free time I will run as many of these as I can. I will bike the rest! My training partner (who dislikes running) will be content to ride alongside me while I run. If the trails allow it, the dogs can come too. Hopefully this will account for majority of my training and the dogs training!

Other sports that are becoming very intriguing are rock climbing, kayaking, and canoing.

Eventually I will have my degree. I will have a job that allows me the freedom to do what I want when I want. Maybe a few trips and this will be out of my system. May a few trips and I will be moving to the mountains. I don’t know. Maybe next year I will have a strong desire to move up with my company and make lots of money. All that I know is that for now I have what some call “wanderlust” and I must get away.

Sorry for the lengthy post! If anyone reads this….lol….I do intend to keep at it! I do intend to give trip reports! I do intend to take a kazillion pictures too!

And if anyone in the areas in down to tag along let me know. I have plans on becoming a NTTR member (north Texas trail runners www.nttr.org). I also want to find a 4x4 club, or maybe meet up with some other Ford Bronco owners.

2011 races I am looking forward to:

Cowtown Ultra (50k)--February 26^th

Nuesces 50 mile in Rocksprings TX--March 5^th

Leadville SilverRush 50 mile mountain bike—July(Saturday)

Leadville SilverRush 50 miles trail run---------July(Sunday)

Happy adventuring,

Jeremy

Follow all my current exploits at
www.rfwtraininglog.blogspot.com

Thanks and happy running,
Jeremy

What I am up to now:

So the year seems to be slipping away from me and I have only two Ultras under my belt.
Fortunately we are heading into running season. At least for Ultras.
I have a charity run planned on September 24th. I will be running across the DFW area, 105 miles in under 30 hours, to raise money for DFW Wildlife coalition and BatWorld. Please check out the website and help if you can. www.runningforwild.com
I still cant help but feeling I should knock out a few races in the meantime. The brothers are doing the Leadville 100, which I have already decided against. Too much money, and too far away. I really don't want to use up a weeks vacation to kill myself in the mountains.
So check back often see what I'm up to. I plan to do some crazy runs to promote the Running For Wild. Also keep track of my training. I will have a daily/weekly blog on there.

Thanks for reading,

Jeremy

Facebook | Loop 1604 Run - San Antonio

Facebook | Loop 1604 Run - San Antonio

This is freaking awesome! I love it when Ultra Runners get creative!
I am proud to see more people breaking out of the traditional race mentality.
Who says you have to pay 100's of dollars to run extreme distances. Just get a few friends and a map(or better yet a GPS) a credit card and hit the road. It will be much more fun than most races and to me more exhilarating.
More adventurous too! And don't forget that camera to capture those memories and to prove to those "nay-sayers" that you actually ran what you brag. But back to the LOOP 1604 run...i don't like driving this loop! Should make for quite the adventure. If you make it out there and I don't be safe and run hard.


Hope I can make it!
Jeremy

McNaughton 150mile trail Run

No i am not running....But i wish I was.
My younger brother Jared is running it though.
This means I earned a free ticket to Vermont. I am currently recouping from a nasty ITB spout from the CowTown 50k. I will be Jared's only crew. I will double-duty as a pacer as well.
I am excited to put in at least 50 miles in this race. I wouldn't decline the oppurtunity to do around 75miles.
Needless to say I am cramming so to speak to make sure I can pace for 50miles...hell i don't want to be the one that needs motivation!
After May I will be looking hard for another race. It has been since Feb. since I have competed. I am itching to run!
Just a quick update for ya!
I am taking race suggestions as well!

Jeremy
www.crazyaboutultras.com

A beach, a jogger, a failing plane, and death | US National Headlines | Comcast.net

A beach, a jogger, a failing plane, and death | US National Headlines | Comcast.net

Wow Guess I will be looking to the sky on my runs for awhile....not just crazy drivers of cars we have to worry about anymore...

Purity of Ultrarunning | Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine

Purity of Ultrarunning | Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine

Rocky Raccoon 100

Rocky Raccoon 100 mile Trail Run

Winter time is quickly becoming a less hated season than it used to be. In my head at least! The cooler weather means I get to run earlier in the day. My endurance seems to skyrocket. I rarely feel slow or sluggish. Perhaps this is just the perks of living in Texas in the winter. And thanks to Joe Prusaitus(sp?) There are Ultra Races aplenty across the state.

Now here I sit at 8:35 in the morning at work, with less work to do than usual and finally getting a chance to review the Hunstville Rocky Raccoon that I ran 3 weeks ago. I won’t apologize for the length of time it has taken me to review this race. Mostly because I am quite sure no one is reading these.

So it is Feb 5^th and I cruise into Huntsville, pick up my packet, and locate our campsite. Once again we are camping less than 5 minutes from the starting line. Beat that at a hotel! To top it off it was around $12 for 2 nights and I was able to bring the dogs. I won’t go into too much detail but I slept horrible. Four guys and three dogs in a four-man tent was ridiculous. Next time people are bringing their own tents and no sharing. Possibly no dogs either, although my two were angels, as always! Probably a total of 3-4 hours of sleep the night before my first hundred miler…I was concerned.

Race morning it is 5:30 I am already awake. I have been for about an hour, begging my mind to sleep just a little bit longer. It was a useless effort so I get up change into race gear and slap on the sweats over top of everything. It is a brisk thirty-something, but not too cold. Quickly gear up and care for the dogs and I am heading for the s

tarting line. I get checked in in the dark, fill up on water, and try to ignore the twins who are rushing around near panic like it is their first run. I make a mad dash for the porta-toilets with ten minutes until race start (nothing unusual here, just nervous). I come back and don’t see the twins. I happen onto my friend Brian, my Mom, Grandma, and little brother. I am expecting good lucks and I know you can do its. Instead I get

a “don’t be afraid to quit” from my mother. Hmm thanks for that…I cut everyone short and try not to show my frustration and building anger. I pick my way about mid way throught the largest crowd of runners I have ever seen at an Ultra-Marathon starting line. It turned out to be about 350 runners just for the 100 miler.

The Race: 5 twenty mile loops. 5

aid stations. 30 hour time limit.

The course was marked fantastically. The course was beautiful. Trees, nice dirt trails, a lake in the mix every once in a while, and just a nice wooded trail run. The 20 mile loop seemed to drag at a few points but otherwise it was a very runnable 20 miles. A bit crowded on the trails with 750 runners (100 and 50 milers) for the first lap or two.Very flat terrain with a few rolling hills that required minimal effort to climb. Now here is where I noticed most people making the mistake. They ran too much, too fast, too early. I kept a slow steady pace for the first 40, and was passed quite often. After 40 I realized I could pick up my pace because I still had plenty left in the tank. I think my fastest loop was the 60-80

mile loop, or it was very close to being my fastest. This is also where I passed the majority of the runners walking along. At this point the elite runners were finished, showered, rested, and on their way to being recoevered. Me, I had another loop to go. 1:30am to 7:30am. This lap went much smoother than expected. I stayed awake fairly well, with minimal hallucinations in the middle of the night. I also only saw a handful of ot

her runners. The hardest part now was staying awake and staying warm. I ran as much I could bcause that was the only way I could stay warm. Temperatures dropped to about 35 and I only had shorts on, and I kept sweating through my gloves and spilling soup on them at every aid station. Wet gloves made things a bit cooler. My biggest difficulty was avoiding mud puddles. The course had a few large sloppy muddy, steal you

shoes, mud puddles. After dark I hit every single one of them ankle deep with both feet. I finished the race strong (family said I looked like I could run another 100) at 25:31:26. My first buckle, I could not be prouder, it is beautiful.

I probably could have pushed a sub-24 finish, but for my first hundred I still wasn’t sure what my body could handle and my main focus was a finish. Now back to the race. The aid stations were the best ever. This was my first hundred to race in, but not my first to be at. I have crewed for the brothers for about a year and have seen some dismal looking food at aid stations after dark. Every aid station had hot food, cold food, anything you could possibly want, and then some! The staff and volunteers were awesome, and very helpful to those that needed it. Except for one guy who assured me he filled my camelbak to the top, but when I checked it was still just a light as when I ran into the station, everyone was beyond expectation. After the race we went to the awards ceremony, which we never do, and Joe awarded some really nice awards to accomplished runners. The event was catered with some delicious looking food. Unfotunately this was $12 dollars a plate and I am a budget runner. Overall a very well organized race and race director. I will definatly look for Joe and his wife’s names when I sign up for races throughout Texas. As far as Rocky Raccoon and Hunstville, it was a great course to run. Fun, fast, and scenic.

Thanks for a great experience Joe!

Jeremy E. Elwell

www.crazyaboutultras.com

It's been awhile...

So I feel like apologies are in order....so I apologize...if there is anywhere out there who follows my blogs or who stumbles upon this bog on accident. It has been quite sometime since I posted anything. After the pitfalls that befell me at the Cleburne run I was discouraged and injured and not very motivated to train. Fortunately, sometime around Christmas something stirred inside me and I was buzzing to run. A few short runs had me realize quickly that my ITB was not quite right still. I did my research (thanks GOOGLE) and convinced my self that my running style absolutely had to be changed. I knew I was a heel-toe runner, and I felt that i could be much more efficient and less injury prone if I became a mid-strike runner. I studied as much of the Pose-Tech and Chi running styles as I could online without spending any money. I taught myself basic technique in front of the computer watching YouTube clips. (note: I do not recommend this...buy the book and learn the right way). Soon after I was in my Apartments fitness room using the treadmill...In no time i felt confident enough to hit the roads. I used my Cascadia's as I felt the Asics I had were simply too much cushioning and I wanted to go the minimalist approach without having to buy a new pair of shoes. By January I was rolling again. The style was becoming natural. The only time I found myself feeling any pain was towards the end of a long run when my form faded. A quick mental assessment usually corrected any pains. I quickly noticed that i no longer had the ITB pain. I also noted that my knees did not bother me at all anymore...before...during...nor after a run. the only pains now were my calves adjusting to the added work and my feet feeling flattened(that's the best i can describe it) after a run. I attribute most of that to running trail shoes on the road though. I missed my chance at the Bandera 100k, but the brothers ran it in 8 degree weather and I was thankful I didn't run it. My mileage was picking up nicely and I signed up for the Rocky Raccoon 100miler in Feb. on the 6th. Sitting here now with 4 days until the race I feel as if I am in the best shape of my life. Well the best runner I have ever been at least. I am excited and nervous at the same time to compete in my first hundred miler.

Wish me luck,

Jeremy