Following up on the elevation and intensity of the D-Day challenge, the focus lately has been on building deep endurance and handling highly technical terrain.
The Scenic Trail Footpath in Minnewaska State Park is a hidden gem that shares some overlap with the Shawangunk Ridge Trail (SRT). It’s a rugged footpath that you don’t see written about very often, but it offers some of the most stunning, sweeping views of the valleys below.
As part of a larger 12-mile hike through the park, I recently adventured down the section of the trail that connects Lake Awosting to Castle Point. I’ve also separately tackled the section that cuts out toward Mud Pond.
It is a highly technical trail, but the payoff is well worth the effort. Taking long, steady-state miles like this through the park is proving to be the perfect programmatic complement to my current high-intensity training block. Right now, I am balancing 3 dedicated rucking days a week with 3 total-body strength days, executing the Athlean-X Total Beaxst program (which I will dive into fully in a separate post).
When you are training for massive ultra goals, these technical back-country footpaths are where the real resilience is built.
Surviving Ultra 
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