Training in Montana

Slept in yesterday and it was very nice. This morning I rolled out of bed and got on the road by 6:10. Beautiful morning. No clouds, half moon directly overhead, stars bright and plentiful. Eastern light very faded. I turned off the headlamp after mile 1 and ran without light the rest of the way. I love where I live.

Legs were tired the first mile, but then warmed up. I thought it was 42 when I started, but there was frost when I drove to work so it must have been in the 30s. Legs warmed up and I felt better. On the way back I got thinking about the Run Turkey Run 5K next month and realized I haven't done any training for it. The last .75 I picked it up and kept it under a 7:00. Averaged a 6:55 for the last mile, and the first .25 I wasn't trying too hard, so I had a good pace. There's a lot of downhill, but I need to get my legs used to turning over that quickly. Going Elk hunting Friday-Monday with my 12 year old and my hunting buddies, so I'll take a running break for a while.

I started exercising (stairmaster) 2 years ago to get in shape for Elk hunting, and when I got back I didn't want to give up my gains, so I started some minor running (I've always been an off and on runner). At the end of that month (November 2009) I watched Biggest Loser contestants run a marathon and realized that if they could do it, I could. I'd wanted to run a marathon since my Dad did St. George in 1987, but I'd never figured out how to do it. That night I determined I would run the DesNews Marathon in 2010 and found Hal Higdon's Novice 1 plan. Interesting how I started this to be a better hunter, and now running has overtaken hunting in importance. Now I run to run, and I hunt because it's a fun thing to do, but I don't spend near as much time thinking about it and planning for it as I do my running. It will be fun, though, and hopefully we'll bring home some meat for the freezer.