Today’s my birthday… yippee! Not only that, but today also marks a week since I met my (original) weight-loss goal. It’s been some 45 weeks, 500+ miles, and 55+ pounds. So this year, “basic fitness” is my gift to myself.
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Another great run in the hills north of Oslo. The trails that I took for this route were all well maintained gravel roads. Most of these roads can be seen from above on Google Earth if that’s any indication. Though I typically assume that roads are less picturesque then single track trails, these roads were gorgeous. The scenery is striking in every way, and the few people that I did encounter didn’t break the solitude that the back-country provided. The first and last half-mile of the run was on city streets, but this was completely acceptable to me since I was able to use the metro to get there and back. Yeah public transport!
I was finally able to use the “follow this route” feature of my GPS (which turned out to be a god-send). The area has several gravel roads that cris-cross all over the region, so having my gizmo tell me that I did or did not need to turn let me relax a bit more and enjoy the run. In retrospect, there are a couple areas that I would have put in more way-points, but in general it worked very well.
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I just got back from running near Sognsvaten just north of Oslo. I chose this area because I could take the metro all the way to the edge of the “green area”. While I was clearly not the only one to realize that this area would be a great place to enjoy a sunny Friday evening, the trails were not too crowded and I was able to really get away from things.
Most of the run I stayed on the dirt roads, but occasionally veered off course to one of the single-track trails in the area. These trails were really quite technical due to rocks and roots, and since I only have street running shoes I had to pick my way on these trails. None the less, I was always rewarded with some crazy beautiful scenery. The eastern part of the run follows a very picturesque stream with lots of water falls and rapids. At the very northern edge of the run there is a large lake whose surface was still as glass. The western part of the trail actually has street lights (though they’re not needed in the summer).
Via google earth, I found some photos of the area that I’ve included below to give you a flavor of the scenery.
