The Rambling Long Run

This week, I started back with an easy run on Monday - a little over four miles - and then followed up with a six-miler on Tuesday.  Bob ran part of the Tuesday run with me and it seemed that I was going a little slower than usual, which is a feeling I often get when I run with Bob.  On Wednesday, I went to the gym and worked out fairly hard, including some plyometric jump squats.  And toward the end of my six-mile run on Thursday, down Sassafras Gap Road, I began to feel some discomfort in my legs.  Too many miles?  But all of them were slow, which I know is how to come back from a layoff, to get back in good condition, or to begin an ambitious training program.

Today came the payoff with a long, rambling, Saturday morning run, the first half with friends and the second half all by myself, as I found the cool shadows along Mirror Lake and the Cullasaja River, down in the lovely shade fragrant with flowers and that musky river smell.  I had intended to go 8 or 10 miles so I was pleased that my watch said 9.22 (a little more than Map My Run, with which I created this map).  But I was even more pleased to be rambling again, which I dearly love to do on Saturdays - just going wherever I like, up hills or down, feasting my eyes on everything along the way.  And I felt pretty strong climbing those long hills, too!  At last, I am back to running the (relatively) long miles that I love.