Dealing With What You Have

Yesterday's post by my friend, George Zack, and often an answer in the podcasts with Lucho at Endurance Planet, got me to thinking about what I'm actually doing with my workouts...are they training or just an outing to the woods?  Yes, I would prefer to run like I did in the past, but I simply can't. However, this year I truly believe that I can consider myself a runner, once again.  It took a lot of dealing with my knee arthritis and meniscus issues and a lot of hiking but can now sustain some real miles, albeit slower than what I remember.

I find myself reminiscing way too often and am also jealous when I see a younger runner go by with such ease in his gait. But I have also come to enjoy my extra time in the out-of-doors and actually get into the "flow" as discussed by Andy Jones-Wilkins in his column at iRunFar.com.  So as Lucho would put it, I do what I can and don't worry about what I no longer have any control over.

 I also thought a lot about the message presented by Aron Rolston at the NIACC auditorium last night. Dealing with boulders in your life and opportunities to change perspective on what is most important to you.  It was a very good, inspirational, and motivating talk and I was glad I had the opportunity to be there and that NIACC is able to arrange for such high quality events in their annual series.

Today went very well as I used a run to the high school, to deliver a student ID that I had found yesterday, as a warmup then hit the trails for my finishing loop at a pretty good clip.  As mentioned yesterday, it is very dry out and the river is unusually low for this time of year. 

10 mile run in AM and additional hiking later.

Blessed With Diversity

I've tried to capture some of the character of the trails afforded by the routes at Lime Creek through the use of photos during those runs.  So far, this year, I've been on the bluff trails, in the upland woods, or around the quarry.  But in addition to the rocks and woods there are also the prairies and a different terrain available.

I was having a great day of "real" running so I tacked on all of the prairie loops for a longer mileage day.  This boded well for the shoes I chose today, a new pair of Salomon Comp 3's that have been on our basement shelf a couple of years just begging to break out.  I also gained first hand evidence of much of an advantage I had been obtaining from the "screw" shoes I'd been using for the trails this week.  Much of the woods trails were ice and, without the screw shoes, I was slipping at times today.  It was actually easier to keep up the running pace rather than try walking on that stuff...as long as I didn't need to stop or change direction the running was fine.

Took advantage of the time to catch the latest podcast with Lucho.

15 miles today for 55 for the week