Making Lemonade

When life gives you lemons...

Not to sound too sour but this morning's beautiful weather presented a dilemma...miss another day of running  after last week's cut-back or not help out with delivering my son's dog to him when he flies into Minneapolis rather than have him drive to Mason City?

We chose MSP.  But I did eek out enough time to hit the trail before leaving.  I ended up trying a workout that I have wanted to experiment with but haven't until today.  I started cautiously but then ran each mile faster than the previous one...a tempo run for me to begin (around 8:30 pace) that turned into a progression run.  It actually felt great and I was approaching 7 minute miling again by the end! It's been a few years since I could run steady at these types of paces but this spring has allowed several of my shorter runs to be in this range again and that only adds to my confidence.  Therefore, due to the spontaneous change of plans, I didn't run the boring daily routine but rather got to put in some speed and hills!  Lemonade out of lemons.

Then in Minneapolis I was able to work some stairs at Minnehaha Falls followed by some real trail time and more hills with the dog later. I've been surprised sometimes by being able to find some decent trail running even while in large cities.  After picking Cory up at the airport, we enjoyed an excellent meal at Brasa just off Hennepin.  Natural and organic foods.

Above the Mississippi River bluffs but below the Minnehaha Parkway Bike/Hike Trail

5.5 miles in the AM and 5 additional miles hiking on the trails and after dusk at home.