52 Weeks, 52 Half Marathons - Stage 32
Sintra - Field trip to my MTB trails
Friday, August 23, 6:43 am
Escaping the social networks trap takes quite an effort. They are a carefully crafted additive drug-poisons that, just like the real-life ones, slowly kill you by shutting down your brain. It’s very easy to fall prey. All is carefully set up to suck you in into the vortex. I highly recommend Cal Newport’s books, where “Digital Minimalism” would be the one to start. I have read it, I have written my own version of it, several times in my mind, before reading it, and I have forgotten it just as many times - and so have you. As I am slowing down for my summer vacation, my brain got some extra thinking time. We are running around flooded in tasks all day long that we seldom stop to think. Thinking is hard, just like running, it takes effort and concentration. I am not going to try and describe why, Cal Newport does that impeccably. I will just share my attempt to get my feet back on the ground, out of the forged cloud where all the action seems to be taking place.
It was roughly 34 weeks ago that you decided to set yourself this challenge. During the previous years, out of fun, and because that’s who you are, a child at heart, for a few months you followed the “One-Punch Man” challenge, a cartoon superhero that supposedly trains by doing a 10 km run, 100 sit-ups, 100 pushups, 100 squats, everyday. Yes, you pulled that one several times at the young age of 50, which you refuse to identify with (today 53). You pulled it off too because you wanted to prove your children that you could do it, and you keep trying hard for them to understand that being physically healthy is one of the easiest steps that you can take to help you live happily.
And you felt good, strong, energized, and were able to push your early stats forward more than any other year of your life (except when you were a kid and all that you did was play football on the street all day long).
And precisely because being busy all time ends up being a barrier to more important things in your life, setting up precise goals is a mechanism to fight becoming a turning gear in life.
So you decided to make another of your small cliff jumps to a 52W52HM challenge. Something I fabricated for myself, but was sure that out of the 8B of us, statistically, someone else would have already done it.
If you are confused (or angry) by my constant change of grammatical person, it’s not a random poor choice of “The elements of style” (which is a good book to read too).
First and foremost, I write for myself (just as Rick Rubin has discovered in his work one should do), because it pushes me to think, explore my feelings and purge my demons (“A demon-haunted world” by Carl Sagan, is also a book everyone should read).
But I also write for the ones around me because I am at my happiest when I am among family and friends. Even if you can’t interact with everyone at the same time, having them close, and experiencing them interacting with each other makes my day.
So, when I change from “I” to “We”, it’s because even though I am running for myself, I want to share all the good things that I gain with you.
To try and not deviate from my goal, I moved away from my Strava profile to a private one and removed my performance stats from my writings. I am very competitive and have infinite strength to the point of injuring myself.
I also tried to publish this in anonymity but quickly failed with my urge to share, and eventually also got pulled by the massive black hole forces of social pressure.
It’s time to get back on track. This will be the last time that I publish this on Substack. I will fully move to my Writebook version. I want to be free of the stats, the likes, and the follower pressure. I want to keep doing this for me and still share it with everyone.
My gate to heaven
It was just on the night before the run, at around 11 pm that I decided that instead of going out on Saturday I would go on Friday. I was at a concert with of my MTB buddies and he wanted to move our Sunday outing to Saturday (he would subsequently bail on me on Saturday). This immediately meant a short night of sleep and an improvised route. Another small jump that turned out to be marvelous.
Since I had no time to plan a route I thought about following some of my MTB trails. All I had to do was to combine a few that would add up to the 21 km.
Trust me, this climb is a killer
We park by Lagoa Azul and after a small stretch on the road, cross the 1st gate to heaven and tackle a climb from hell. I have had my MTB brakes “boil” coming down this descent. I know where I am going so the climb is no penitence for me, I am going to one of my faithful trails up and above. Still, this climb hits 20%
Checkpoint 2 - from here on the climb is not as steep
Not requiring a map at all to do my run is a great feeling to have (I will go on the opposite direction on my next run). We will be climbing hard for more than 3 km. This is one of the spots where I hit my top speed on my MTB as I am coming down to go back home after all the fun shredding.
It’s not flat as it looks
As we gain altitude, the clouds begin to cool us. I had a plan to go to one of the highest peaks for a great panoramic shot and soon found out that the photo was not going to happen. I had been running Z2 all week so I was used to the slow climbing pace (hardly at Z2 now).
Checkpoint 3 - let the fun begin
Arriving at the last gate on this climb is painful. I have suffered many times on my MTB arriving here as the climb deceptively increases above 10%. My heart is racing but not because of my pace. It’s because I am about to share my first MTB trail, and one of my favorites.
Rock garden entryway
To access the trail we have to push up through a rock garden interrupted by some nasty roots. You have to go up at full power on your normal human combustion bike and have a good coordination not to lose traction because it’s very steep. We are running and that means we are climbing some steep steps, enough to get us puffing at the top. The entrance to the start of the trail is a tricky narrow rock passage that always gets me a little nervous.
The forest starts to get denser and pretty
Enter the first tunnel in heaven, a wonderful single track, narrow enough to give you a tremendous speed sensation, but wide enough for your handle bar to fly by. The ground is a butter smooth mattress of layered leaves. I cannot describe how satisfying it is to step or riding a bike on this terrain. We fly through this tunnel completely engulfed by the trees. Unfortunately this tunnel of love is only 800 meters long.
The tunnel
After the adrenaline rush we join the wide trail, where we have run before on stage 28, to catch our exit to the next single track trail. We are at km 4.4m, and need to catch our exit just 200 meters ahead (limiting our overlap with 28 to 200m here).
Connection trail
The off-ramp is short but pesky-steep and leads us to the main road, where I am greeted by two early road bikers, that was unexpected. I use the road for about 300m (an overlap with stage 7) to get to the next playground.
I was not alone for a few seconds
The trees surrounding this stretch of road are amazing but I am intrigued by one that is completely different than all the others, which has become my Sintra’s Christmas tree.
_A Christmas tree _
We enter another gate that gives access to a number of fun trails. Unfortunately, one of them has been fenced and we can no longer use it. It was called “Trilho da Água”, trail of the water, and it was a lighting-speed single track through the middle of trees and ferns.
Gate to the fun park
After trying to find a new entry to the trail, which did not exist after all, I fall back to the usual entry to another high-speed tunnel with the same kind of mattress as the one described before. This one is longer, it’s about 1.5 km of a fascinating narrow tree tunnel taking us down at lighting speed. On my MTB everything becomes one long exposed blurred beautiful photo.
Mouth watering
Keep your eyes on the center of the trail, make sure the handle bar does not touch any of the branches and fly. We are running so we have to replace the adrenaline rush with the dopamine flush. The slower, but not so much, pace, let’s us enjoy the beautiful changes in the foliage. It does have the drawback of letting my mind focus on potential nasty spots to catch my handle bar - information I did not need.
Those tall bushes are a little closer to the trail edge than I remembered
This trail runs by another just as beautiful and longer one called “The Flow” that is not as recommended to go down running. The flow is packed with root steps and small drops done at full speed. When I get to the end of that trail my keyboard RSI reveals itself at peak pain, but the trail is phenomenal.
Mosquito lagoon
Both trails lead to what I believe to be an artificial lagoon that we have named the “Mosquito Lagoon”. I have not had any problems with mosquitos there for years, but the name stuck. Trails have different names or aliases depending on the riding tribe. It’s interesting when you are riding, to have a new rider searching for trail ABC, and you have no idea where it is because you know it as trail CDE.
Climbing to Capuchos
We find ourselves again on a connection trail climbing to the Capuchos area. It’s another killer climb where I have ridden my MTB with the pistons at full blast. Not lately, where I just enjoy the view with my cheating e-bike.
Road to the Capuchos parking lot
The roads crossing by the entrance to the Capuchos parking lot are the meeting point in Sintra. During the weekend, this is where everyone gathers to decide the next great route to take (and because of the parking lot, where the ones that don’t feel like climbing from the bottom of the mountain, start their rides).
Exit of “Trilho do Avô”
We have run by this intersection before. Today we will be climbing to the top of peak “O Monge” by following some top MTB trails on the reverse path. Since I am the only one that could be on these trails so early coming down on the MTB, there is no danger of me running upwards in the wrong direction. I also know them better than the palms of my hands, so I thought. If you plan on doing them, please do so this early in the morning, preferably not during the weekend, and be on full alert for incoming MTB riders.
I come flying down and never really appreciate the full beauty of this trail
I have ridden this trail, “Trilho do Avô” (Grandfather’s trail), many times, and still, my jaw dropped on how beautiful it is. I collected dozens of photos and should have not left any of them out of this post. Sintra is treating me to the complete experience. The mist is set just at the right point. I am drooling as I write, this was absolutely unforgettable.
Slightly banked turn “secured” by the trees
How I wish you were here, the timeless line by Pink Floyd, a song I would hear on repeat for the coming days dedicated to the special people in my life. I beg you to jump out of that fish bowl and let your souls run over this new ground that we have found.
I am baffled - I ride here?
Biking suddenly seems to be the equivalent of the day-to-day busyness of our lives. Everything happens so fast and automatically that we don’t stop to smell the forest.
The hypnotizing scenery hides the respectable climb that is taking us one of the highest peaks in Sintra. If you heard of runner’s high, this is runner’s high squared.
Another delightful banked turn - don’t be fooled by the camera, this is steep
What can I say, I am running up one of my favorite MTB’s trail, like a salmon against the current and it is taking my breath away just a much as when I come flying down. The scenery is unbelievable. This is becoming the run of my life and my eyes burn as I write this. It was that powerful and I wish I can do it on repeat until the day I die.
This short ramp is sweet, but slippery
There are a good number of drops and rocks and all kinds of dangerous looking traps for the incoming MTB rider that does not need to have knowledge of it. The probability of making a mistake is extremely slim. We take a lot more risks on mundane tasks and live under just as many others that are not under our control.
This trail is mesmerizing.
Approaching the entrance to the trail
The trail ends at km 9.4. I can’t believe that we are already almost at what was supposed to be our halfway point. It’s going to be a long run but it certainly does not feel like one so far. The fog is getting denser as we climb, and the wind intensifying. This has been a horrendous summer of wind in the area. Luckily in the middle of the forest we are very well protected.
Entrance to the trail, we came from down there - FANTASTIC!
We leave the grandfather’s trail and briefly join the wide alpine climb trail to Monge. Not for long, as we enter the Dimas 0 trail, another classic. This trail is also packed with rock and root drops. We are climbing and it now feels we are going up a large flight of stairs. The trail demands a lot of concentration when coming down. Not as much going up, and again the scenery is something else.
Magic ferns
Dimas 0 trail leads what can be a resting point on the ascent to the Monge peak. It’s by a well known cross remembering some fire fighters that perished while defending the mountain range from a wild fire many years ago. It is possible to climb the rocks and have an amazing view of the landscape towards Lisbon. Today, we have zero visibility.
Fire fighters are among the bravest people out there
There is no resting in my runs, time to enter Dimas 1, another beauty. A trail with some technical challenges winding through the middle of the trees, surrounded by magical views. This trail is short and I know it by heart coming down. Running uphill is a total different story.
Dimas 1 has some decent descents that are very slippery
At a given point in the middle of the trail I appear to arrive to a dead end. I have a feeling there is a big steep wall of dirt and roots in front of me, and it seems that I have lost the trail. How the heck was that possible?
It wasn’t, that was indeed the trail. It is the trickiest part of this Dimas stretch, a steep descent that, from below, looks even more difficult and intimidating. That did not stop me from coming flying down two days later on my MTB ride - fish bowl memory.
As we get to the peak the view just keeps improving
Exiting the trail back to the main ascent route is quite an experience, and specially today that the fog has been cooperating in setting up a surreal scenery. My biking buddies and I always get stoked when we start climbing and see the puffy hat sitting on top of the mountain’s head.
These trees look unreal
We have now exited a frequent sequence of 3 fun trails that are part of my usual MTB route. We did it in a salmon style, against the current, the correct one for a running route, and I am absolutely crushed by the beauty that I have the privilege to freely enjoy right by where I live.
Please enter - lot’s of fun and adrenaline ahead
Arriving at the Monge peak (Monk peak) there are multiple hard core descent routes. All of them exit from this paradisiacal magical scenery of moist, fog and green. We are at km 10.6 and will follow a wide trail down to the main road at km 12. It is a repeat trail from stage 28 that will take us to the Enchanted Forest trails.
At the top of the Monk peak
We briefly jump on the road for another 200 m. This stretch of road is fascinating, we are very high on the mountain, there is always a lot of humidity in the area and you can tell by how green everything is, even the rocks.
On our way to the Enchanted Forest picnic area
We arrive at small picnic area that you probably have seen on a TV commercial. It has been used by hundreds of brands to promote their products. There are huge rocks covered in moss scattered around and only something magical was capable of putting them here. We are going to follow part 1 of the enchanted forest trail, an easy one and in the correct direction.
At the enchanted forest entry
Easy I said, not today. It is so humid that the dirt has become butter and I have to run in baby steps trying to keep my balance. I was not expecting that, it is a lot easier to let the bike roll down.
Start of the enchanted forest trail
All we are missing are the magical gnomes. It is a single track trail, very muddy, surrounded by a carpet of green. It’s slightly less than 1 km going down hill through the middle of a dream. We have to cross the main road to from the part I to part II.
The fog is hiding the gnomes
Part I is the scenic route, part II is the adrenaline route. It is very steep, very slippery and extremely addictive. I have raced one of my buddies here a few times which is pure madness, I will try not to do it again.
Entrance to the enchanted forest part II trail
This portion of the trail is again way too slippery for running. It was a miracle that I have not slipped and hit my butt on the ground. I must have looked ridiculous coming down with my frightened steps.
_This trail is very steep - believe me _
Look left, right, up or down, there is no escape from the beauty of this place. It is truly the Enchanted Magical Forest. It ends too fast by another connecting trail that in itself is worthwhile exploring even if only hiking. I could flood this post with photos from this trail alone - I partially did.
It is twice as steep than it looks
Our descent route is somewhere in there
I have gone up several times to repeat the descent on my MTB
We are around the 13km and I am salivating for the next trail to come. We follow the connecting trail for about 300 meters to the entrance of my next pearl. This connecting trail today is looking surreal with the mist. The path is again that amazing compacted leave mixture, a thrill to step on.
On our way to “Home I”
We are on our way to what has been my favorite trail over the last 3 months. It is divided in 3 parts and we are starting from the end of part 1 to go all the way to the top. Again, it is too early, and I have still not been cloned, so there is no chance that someone is shredding down (I am the one pulling my buddies out of bed early for bike rides).
Exit of the Home I trail
We enter Home by the exit door, a full speed steep end to a large shot of adrenaline. This last stretch leads to a succession of banked turns that make me drool as I go by. These turns are amazing and so is the view around them. Today they are made of dirt butter, I have to turn on the 4x4 mode of my Ghost shoes move up the trail. Always ready to use my front wheels (aka limbs) to prevent me from eating dirt.
I bank everything on these turns
I can see me coming down
At a given point in the trail we have to climb a 2 meter high ramp that is close to a jump. As expected, halfway I slipped and came skidding down on my butt in the mud. That was fun, and scary for a while. Time to use the adjacent roots to grab and pull my way uphill. Arms, hands and legs are now part of the landscape mud. I now can only operate my phone with Siri to open the camera APP and pushing the volume button to shoot.
Can you see me flying down on my bike?
It was not long before I found a large tree fallen interrupting the trail. It was huge and I could not believe that it had fallen down. As much as I tried there was no way to go around or under it. The trail is blocked. Noooooo! I am filled with sadness that I will not be able to complete the trail all the way to the top, and also filled with apprehension about the fact that a tree had fallen right where I have ridden dozens of times in the last months. Later, one of my riding good friends, one of the most rational persons that I know, quickly did the calculation of the probability of us being hit by a tree while on the trails.
Let’s put it this way, it is so slim that it is silly to fear that it could happen, even more given the crazy speeds that we normally achieve during our descents. The probability there of something going wrong is several orders of magnitude higher.
I have no choice but to follow the trail back to the main one. Fear not, there is another amazing trail around the corner to go up (or down if biking).
Back on the main trail which is a wonder
Meet “The Widow”, a massive downhill trail just for the brave. It is a very steep trail where you can get a little taste of everything. The name is of course intimidating and rightfully so. This is no trail for beginners and even experienced bikers have to know what they are doing if coming down fast. It is absolutely marvelous. I know I have been repeating myself with this tone of speech but it truly is.
The Widow
This climb kicked my butt. It is one full km that gives us no rest, clocking in frequently above the 15% grade. I got to the top on the redline with my air filters wide open gasping for oxygen. The trail line is hard to follow because there are multiple ways down. The recipe is to pick the steepest route, that is the correct way up!
The tree that wants to go up the mountain
We climbing from the north to the Peninha peak, one of the highest points in the mountain. To the north we have the infinite forest of green. To the south the mountain is almost bald. As we exit the Widow, it is as if we had crossed a portal to a parallel dimension. On clear days we have an infinite view to the Guincho, Cascais, the south margin of the river Tejo and even Lisbon (see my last photo from Stage 1).
Today we have been greeted by a cyclonic cold wind in the middle of the clouds. We can barely see 50 meters ahead.
Peninha was not friendly today
Fortunately Sintra is magic and we just need to cross the portal back to the north on the other side of the hill to get back to wonderland. There is a real gate at the end of the ramp off Peninha that marks the exit portal. We are at the 16th km, and the good news/bad news is that we are 10km away from the end.
Exit portal
It is Friday, my last day before going on vacation, I will get in late so that my co-workers get used to not seeing me around for the next two weeks. Still, I started later than usual and am still 10 km from the finish line. We will follow the main road for about 1 km (overlap with stage 7) right up to another picnic area that I recommend as a hiking basecamp.
Road side art
This descent is a joy for road bikers and for this runner. I love the trees by the road side. My legs are ready for some even terrain and the asphalt is as smooth as it can get.
Some of my favorite trees in Sintra
It is easy to spot the picnic area by the amazing looking tree that marks the spot. There is also a gate to the main trail that led us to the Home and Widow trails. This trail is a gold mine.
An amazing looking tree
The gate to the the gold rush trail
As it is late, I have no other option but to follow the fastest possible route back to the finish line. I have used all my possible time on the MTB trails. From now on I will either be using the roads or connecting wide trails that we use to hop from one single track to the other.
Picnic area - good for very hot days (it can get very cold here too)
We take a trail massive trail down to the road. This one is also a top speed spot that has such an incline that always kills my neck. It’s one of those descents where if anything goes wrong, things will get nasty. Again, the probability is very slim.
Running down is also no easy task. The water lines are deep and there are many loose rocks.
Back on the main road
We get back on the main road around the 17th km. This will be an overlap with Stage 19 for the next 4 kms. I recall that I did a very good pace during that stage so I floor it once again. My feet are now in heaven after 10 miles of rock hoping and even though the road is a climb I am carrying with me the thrill of the past trails.
One of the most beautiful trails during sunrise
After flying by the Capuchos cross once again, since I am on repeat trails (but over my 21km run), I keep pushing my pace through one of the most beautiful trails on this mountain. Specially during winter, when the sunrise is slow and low, if the sky is clear, these trees have it cast surreal light focus from heaven.
Fake easy climb
The trail is wide and looks easy, but there are several hard climbs to tackle this late in the run. I am feeling very strong today and manage to plough through them at a decent speed until we get to the long descent that will take us down to the main road.
The Jeeps trail - descending all the way to the main road at the bottom
It’s time to start going down. This dirt road known as the Jeeps (because it was used by Jeeps carrying tourists) is our preferred way up the mountain. It’s 3.5 km of suffering going up. It is also 3.5 km of fully focused high speed going down. It is just as taxing on your body going up as going down, on a bike. I have been on the top 10 times going down for a while on Strava, but no longer checking to remain safe. But today I am running so it’s time to relive that epic descent for a few years ago in running mode. I floor it going down, even if worn out by the killer 700 m accumulated ascent from before. Like on my bike going down, this descent looks to be twice as long going down than coming up.
Back on the main road
I have 2 kms to go back to the finish line, now on the main road. I manage to keep pushing on some stretches of the road but I am done with the climbs, those as small as they are look to be ten times as steep than they should be.
The dirt of joy
This has been the run of my life.
My love for running is at the same level of my love of mountain biking. Today is as if I had merged both.
Love is not something that you split, it is something that you multiply. When you have your second child you don’t split your love between the two, you get twice as much love to give. The same applies for your 3rd child - I can verify that.
This is also true for friendships.
I have learned and re-learned a lot during my run today, and that made it even more special than I expected.
Success is about being healthy, physically and mentally.
I feel that I am getting there.
Enjoy your runs!
-APF
PS: I will be back!
Route and profile as recorded by Strava
