Monday trail musings

I've always had trouble following anything like an organized training plan. I think it's because I want running and cycling to be fun; I spend so much time doing other stuff that requires a lot of organizing and thinking. When I'm out there, I wanna go as hard as I wanna go.

Yesterday I took a new pair of shoes out for a Sunday spin. After two months feeling the trails getter wetter and wetter, and my Hoka Rapa Nuis slipping more and more, I decided to spring for a pair of more hardcore trail shoes. I bought a pair Icebug Acceleritas. Icebug is a Swedish company that does sort of niche shoes like studded shoes for winter running and orienteering shoes with spikes. All their shoes are in vibrant colors, which I love.



The shoes are significantly lighter than my other runner shoes, and they have really defined tread and almost no damping. I did managed to take a pretty good fall by sliding sideways on a root yesterday, but that was because I wasn't looking at the trail in front of me. Serves me right!

I went for a bit of a trail hunt. The forest around Oslo is huge, and there is a maze of trails between, well, everything. I keep trying new pieces of trail through forest and seeing where they lead, collecting them like pieces of a puzzle. I do have a map and stuff, but many of the trails aren't on it. So I slowly expanding my trail network, like a spider spinning a web further and further out.

I love it when I find a new piece of singletrack through the forest. It feels sort of magical, like it could lead anywhere. Maybe the witch's house in Hansel and Gretel. Or just to the top of another rolling hill, where the houses of a million Oslo inhabitants are suddenly visible. 

Sunset at Linderudseter

The blissful fantasy of my run was broken by the realization that I was blistering - bad. Today my whole heel is open and raw, and I can't run. Guess that's what you get for taking a new, untested pair of shoes out for two hours! Any tips on treating big, raw blisters? I don't want to be stuck inside all week.

- The Wild Bazilchuk

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