Week 3, Day 5

Training is still going well. We mixed up a few days this week, but it worked out fine. That's just part of it- knowing where you're at. Sometimes you're too sore after one days workout to do a longer run, so its better to just go for the 2 mile cross train. Learning to listen to your body is better than forcing yourself to adapt strictly to a training plan. Of course, we are being diligent with the overall plan, but part of that is just being flexible throughout the week, without really compromising. So far, so good.

Something I'm also learning is that I can get bored too easily. When I know I have a set amount of miles to run, I can't just go half way and turn and run back. I have to trick myself. Run, just run till I feel like turning around, so that I don't know where exactly the mileage is going to end. (Nike+ lets me know how far I've gone along the way.) Otherwise, when I know I'm half way, its harder to finish and the run becomes less enjoyable. I want it to be an adventure. So what if the cool down walk home is a little longer.

This also leads to needing to find new places to run. Or at least starting in different places. This evening we were going to run on the trail along the creek in Branchville. It was just after 8:30, though and during our warm up walk, we were on the lookout for bears. Not even 5 minutes into it, we saw one just across the creek from where we were and turned around quickly and did our run through town instead. Oh well. Unfortunately, the sighting will make us both a little more paranoid about running at night, even through Branchville. I really enjoy all this nature, but yeah, don't really need to get attacked by a bear, even though that's fairly uncommon.

So we ended up running past the school, the graveyard, the abandoned psychiatric home, some old abandoned farm and an eerie looking pond. I told Tom I think this place is a hundred years away from being a real ghost town. Pretty creepy. Made for a great run though.