Lake Mineral Wells State Park

This past weekend we camped at Lake Mineral Wells State Park.

We've heard from multiple friends it's one of the best State Parks in the area. A few years ago, I ran the LMW Trailway, but I didn't get a chance to explore the area, other than the main trail.

Even though our site didn't have a lake view, most of the sites we saw didn't, but we were surrounded by trees and nestled away from other campers.

I feel like we are getting faster at packing, setting-up camp and breaking down. One word: TOTES! Many many TOTES! Which reminds me, I should buy more.


Friday night, we grilled burgers and made a campfire. We stayed out there visiting by the fire, until a raccoon scared us. The crazy animal jumped on our picnic table. After the raccoon scare, we decided to go inside and call it a night.

Saturday morning, I went for a run on the trail. This particular trail overlooked the lake. The view was incredible. Most of the longer trails, including the main LMW Trailway was closed due to flooding, so I kept circling the shorter ones.


Shortly after my run, we all went on a hike.


Sunday morning, I woke up and made breakfast for everyone and then I went for a shorter run.

After my short run, we drove to the trail entrance of Penitentiary Hollow. It was quite the distance from out campsite, but once we got there, we hiked. This was the best part of our camping trip and something we enjoyed doing together.

It was exciting exploring the area.


Trey winterized the Airstream, so I'm not sure if we will be going on another camping trip this month or even for the rest of the winter season. We've had the airstream for 6 weeks and we've camped four times. I'm hoping we have an unusally warm winter. That would be AWESOME for camping! 

Mineral Wells State Park Has a Running Trail!

*Note: 50K Training Program at the end of this post*

Sunday morning, while Trey was working on his truck, I took the opportunity to explore the state park. That's what I love about running, you can discover things you might miss otherwise.

The trail covers ground from Mineral Wells to Weatherford, which is a 14 mile one-way trip. One day I will run the entire distance. Anyone want to join me? I would have to arrange for someone to pick me up in Weatherford. Seriously, this would be a great trail to run to prep for Palo Duro. Mineral Wells trail is NOT technical, it's basically flat...or at least what I saw. I ran 8 miles, in and out.

A bridge overlooking water.



I got a late start on my run, 10 am. Oh, my goodness, it was hot! Luckily, I ran with my handheld, but the last mile was a struggle. The sun was close to high noon, by the time I was making it back to the car. I only had one mile left and I had drank all my water.

I parked myself under a tree for a few minutes, got my head out of I'm going to die out here land...and I sucked it up and finished.

 I was so glad to see my car, since I had cold water waiting for me. Oh and I'm also thankful for sunblock. Trey thinks I should start wearing sunblock more often, even on my short runs because he's noticed my tan shoulders go from a fair bronze to medium/dark brown, in a matter of months. He's right, you should see my tan line. I have not had a sunburn, this season, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't wear sunblock.


Official Palo Duro 50K Ultra Marathon Program
I decided to post this online because I've noticed blog traffic picking up from people searching for 50K training programs. When I was on the search for one, I had a hard time finding the perfect match, so hopefully this will help other ultra runners out. You're welcome!

(note: on Thursday's I plan on doing some speedwork)

I'm on week two, so I'm feeling pretty good. Depending on how I feel, on my rest and low mile days, I will incorporate P90X. Or I'll rest. Like I said before, I'm not going to stress over this program, it's just a plan. My main focus will be long runs. If you are on dailymile you can follow my daily progress. Here is my page.