I'm back, baby!

If I tell the whole truth I have not had a good run since Napa. They have all kind of sucked. Today I was determined to get off the fucking bike trail, which is very convenient and easy for a 'squeeze it in and get it done' run, and get out somewhere pretty and do one of those 'meandering, distance unknown, course unknown, run for the fun of it' runs.

I needed one.

Badly.

Because if I tell the whole truth, I have not exactly been in love with Ironman training. Shhh. Don't tell anyone. It's a secret.

I started at the Baylands Nature Preserve and took a different trail than I had run before and then proceeded to just run down any trail or pseudo-trail I found

Oops! Here I am at one of several dead ends I hit running on the trails that were only accessible because of the extreme low tide. Gotta love a little mud!

Very pretty day in the wetlands!
Ok, since I am being totally honest today, I was going to snap a self portrait, but got embarrassed when a couple walked by. Voila! Boring landscape shot.

The first 2 miles were rough because my legs were still pretty tired from this weekend and yesterday I essentially did a sprint triathlon with my scheduled training. 1 mile swim at masters, then 12.5 mile bike ride at 15 mph (fast for me on the bike trail), and a 2 mile run off the bike. But once I settled in and started to remember that not every workout has to be speed work , a tempo run, or an exercise in fucking emotional torture like most of my workouts lately I started to enjoy myself.

Horrible picture and extreme crop of an osprey and one scared little coot. The coot is fine by the way.

I was scheduled for a 50 minute run, but by time I was back at my car I had gone 7 miles (no, smart ass, I can not run 7 miles in 50 minutes. It was 75 minutes. Whatever.) and I felt like me again.

Now, you didn't think you were going to get out of here without a pelican picture did you? It is a pelican ass, but it still counts!