Crazy Comparisons

OK - I have to admit that sometimes when you are running or walking for long distances - the silliest things run through your mind. Maybe its a form of self-amusement - but if it helps deal with pain and/or boredom - I will take it.

For instance, today I was running with a group of women from the Fast Running Blog. Except - I am the slowest person there - so I was actually running alone 'far behind' a group of women from the Fast Running Blog. Another woman I passed earlier on my run turned around before the actual end of the trail and, for some silly reason, this annoyed me, so I made a game out of trying to catch her before we got back on the old section of the trail (I was about 1/2 mile behind and had 2 miles to catch her in). She was running on the paved trail, I was making my own trail in the dirt fields beside the trail. I was actually pretending I was a vampire chasing down my food and loved when I came out from behind a long stretch of mounds of dirt and had actually caught up to her.

Another thing that crossed my mind today was a comparison table between asphalt and trail running. I'm sure it was more fascinating to me than it will be to anyone else, but here it is:

Criteria Considered	Asphalt	Trails
Running Speed	Faster	Slower
Effect on leg joints	Harder	Easier
Can left mind drift	Most of the time	Rarely - need to watch trail
Chances of a face plant	Low	Moderate to Medium
Proprioception benefits	Low	Medium
Abiliity to get away from traffic	Low	Medium to high
Percentage of leg and core muscles used	Average - you tend to develop the same ones	Higher than average - terrain uses all muscles