Training in Montana

Boy howdy, today was the toughest run I've had in a long long time as I nearly cut it short by a long ways. But, I pushed through and made it the distance (He's going the distance - he's going for speed). I rolled out of bed at 5:25 as I planned out my Saturday in Outlook at work and my appointments automically add an alarm 5 minutes before but I'd forgotten that. I had my other alarm set for 5:45 so that was a bit of a rude awakening but worked fine. Had to work out some issues with my friend John, but finally rolled out that door at 6:05.

When I headed out the door it was 38 with a very slight breeze, so wore shorts & a long sleeve shirt, tech shirt underneath that, and gloves and a thin hat. It was perfect for today (but I was in need of a long hot shower afterwards to warm up completely). After 1 mile I took a short walk break. Weird. After 2 miles I took a walk break as I just wasn't feeling it - I never do that. Just past 2 miles is a fork in the road. If I go straight it's rolling hills but coming back that way it's slightly uphill. If I go left it's my tougher-than-Veyo hill and then more and more up, but on the return I can always run low 7s which is fun for a slow guy like me. All week I'd planned to go the hill route, and turn around at 6 miles. As I'd walked twice already, I'd figured to go the easier route. After going 30 seconds towarads the easy way out, I turned around and headed to the hill. I thought that if anything could get me going, it would be my favorite hill. I really do love it. So, I headed off. It's gravel road from this point on, and starts out with a stretch of downhill. Still not feeling it. Now a strech of uphill then some flat before hitting the big hill. Really not feeling it. At 3.17 miles I walk again, and this time I walk for a few minutes. This has literally never happened to me. Obviously I haven't been running that long (nearly 2 years). I think I'm not getting enough sleep, I guess I did run a marathon only 2 weeks ago, but my body feels great. Maybe it's because I'm not on a training plan and I live by the plan. I don't know. It sucked. I turned around, ready to head home and admit defeat at 6 miles, when I desperately wanted a 10+ miler. After a few steps I conquer the negative voices and decide to just go up the hill. I swallow some jelly beans, I start shuffling, then the hill starts, and I get in the groove. I shuffle some more, and soon I'm at the top of the hill. I'm feeling it! Wahoo! It took me running up a monster hill to get in the groove. That felt great. At this point it was just over 4 miles and I knew the rest of the run would be good and it was. Turned around at 6 miles and cruised back home. I cruised downhill in the low 7s, ate me some more jelly beans when I started to fade, and I moved on towards home.

With 1.5 to go I'm back on a paved country road, no cars around, and I see what looks like a herd of cattle spread across both lanes coming towards me. I couldn't figure out what it was for a while. Finally realized it was a herd of 20 wild turkeys, 3 of them albino, that live in the area. They were cruising the highway eating along the way. When I got to them I chased them off the road, gave them a stern lecture about walking in the middle of the road, and then ran home.

AP: 9:08. That was a really long post. Sorry.