Second Five-Miler in a week!

I know it’s small fry for those of y’all who are actually in shape, but I had another in my series of small triumphs in my new year of fitness – Saturday’s scheduled 4 miler turned into a five miler, including a schwack-ton of hills. Yippee, I say, and a huge THANKS to the RBF’s continuing support; special shouts this week go to Bugdozer and Jeff for pics of mountains, trails, and double-digit miles. Plus a bit of off-line cycling babble – I am SO looing forward to getting on the bike again. And somewhat bitter about drilling this weekend – I could have oiled, changed cables and pads, and gotten in a ride in the 40 degree weather on Saturday.

Instead, I did my PT run Saturday afternoon. My intention was to run the base permimeter trail, however, with the exception of some icy tire tracks, the trail still had upwards of a foot of snow when I got to it.

So plan B kicked in. I turned around and headed back down the road I was on, but instead of looping around past the gym, I headed up the hill to the hospital. A good long climb to the top, a fabulous view of the Coast Guard Academy. Nice. I ran about halfway down the other side, then realized I still had climbing in my legs, so I turned around and went back over the top. Cruising down the other side, the Forerunner hit 3 miles, with about 1.5 back to the gym, so it was a no-brainer to tack on a little loop to stretch it to five.

I was spent when I hit the gym, and missed out on the runner’s high this time (probably due to the exertion), but had the smug sense of satisfaction that only comes from doing extra miles outdoors and seeing folks on treadmills who missed fresh air, sunshine, and the satisfying crunch of rubber on road.