Wet Feet Training

My perimeter road running buddies think I’m nuts, but for me it is totally unremarkable during a road run to deliberately run thru a stream—when there is a perfectly good bridge RIGHT THERE—as a means of Ultra training.

Case in point: yesterday’s run over what I call my Frederick’s Mill Road 10 mile route.  About 2/3 of the way thru when I run clockwise is a crossing of the Conococheague Creek west of the village of Marion, PA.  This run is a 100% road run over little-used rural roads.  But to at least give me the semblance of Ultra training, I often ford the creek at the bridge crossing.  The Conococheague here is wide but shallow (not over knee-deep at this particular point) so to wade across is no big deal.

In the summer this crossing is quite refreshing; yesterday it was a bit cool, to say the least!

This crossing gave me 3+ miles of wet-footed running which I think helps when I encounter stream crossings in an Ultra situation.  The Capon Valley 50K (Yellow Springs, WV) is coming up in May.  Although I’m not quite certain of entering this year, I am cognizant of the fact that this is typically a wet course, with both stream crossings and standing water.