It's like pizza

This weekend my long run was a recovery run of only 6 miles, before picking up miles again over the next weeks to get up to half marathon distance by the beginning of May. Still, I decided I wanted my weekend getaway with a run down the Ice Age Trail. This trail has become my all time favorite. I love the small single track hiking trail that doesn't allow for much more space than me and my thoughts.

Since the run would be shorter, I dared myself to take the uphill course rather than going the other way around.

Well, what can I say some days you feel like you are gliding while you are running and some days you feel like an elephant stomping through the vegetation making awfully loud breathing noises. I was the former today. It seemed like I just couldn't get the right breathing pattern going and relax enough as to not feel like my feet were pounding the ground. There were several walking stretches in this run and I had the option of cutting the run short.
I took the middle turn between the long run and the short run, not knowing what mileage this would actually put me at, when I reached the car. As I was approaching the car, ambition overcame me and I didn't want to sell myself short on my already shorter run. So I turned my thoughts off in order to not have them interfere with the decision I just made and turned down another trail to add the still missing mile and a half.

As I was nearing the end of the run, I of course started to feel much better and my form was improving. I passed a man close to the end of the trail, who looked at me and said "looks like you are nicely trotting along here". It's good he didn't see me any earlier...

But in the end, running is like eating pizza to me...even if it is a bad one, it is still pretty awesome!



And when I went to the running store on my way home to buy more energy chews and talked to the sales clerk, we got to talking about training goals. I told her that I love running on the Ice Age Trail and she said "oh, so you are more into the technical running". That comment made my day, because it made me feel like a bad ass :-) Day and run saved for sure!