"...In the end, people either have excuses or experiences; reasons or results; buts or
brilliance. They either have what they wanted or they have a detailed list of all the rational reasons why not."

~ Anonymous
(taken from Matt Erbele's, It Takes Time to Get Good)

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

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!


17 comments:

Aka Alice said...

I woulda bought the 50 minute - 7 mile story...

I'm so glad you got a good run in. Good runs are DA BEST...

Unknown said...

Yay for "running for the fun of it"

What a difference a GOOD run (good=happy) makes.

Next time take the self-portrait and don't worry about the couple walking by. You may need a picture of happy you from a good run as motivation sometime. :-)

Diana said...

You are not making my thoughts of ever doing a IM all that great ya know?!
Good job on the runnin' just for the fun of it!

Aileen said...

Good for, getting that run in and then it turned out to be a good one!

I love those coots...

Carolina John said...

that's a cute little pelican ass. at least you got a run in.

Tina Mickelson said...

March SUCKED for me running. I am so happy its April! I've had two good runs this week too! Super duper easy run with the Couch to 5K group Tuesday night and Speedwork with Fleet Feet group last night. Its about freaking time! Sunday is my first trail race! I'm excited and scared. My plan is to take it easy, make it just like any other run so I can have a PR next time I hope.

Tina Mickelson said...

I totally forgot to say "great pix" and my miss runs along the wetlands. Actually I miss my runs along the bay period! That was the great part about living in Martinez, easy access to so many new and fun places. I'm happy you had a great run day and jealous you could even do your own mini tri.

Aron said...

looks like that was just what you needed!!!! love runs like that :) and glad you got out there and enjoyed yourself. the pics are beautiful!!!

Jo Lynn said...

Atta girl! Try to do that more often, obviously it's what you enjoy. ;)

Anonymous said...

Your post sounds definitely upbeat. Glad you got your groove back on :)

Shannon said...

Great run!

BTW, "Run Bitch Run" always gives me a chuckle when it pops up in my Blog Roll.

Lindsay said...

yay for a good run at last. it seems like a lot of people have been in the running dumps (or something like it) lately, so i'm glad you are bustin' out of it! i'm working on it myself. definitely looked like a great place to run, and the weather doesn't hurt either!

IronWaddler said...

Photos are awesome--it has to feel good to run there.

ShirleyPerly said...

That bayside scenery is so nice! Glad your feeling like your running self again. And I can empathize about training sometimes not being so fun. I don't know what it is with some people who just love killing themselves with speed work. And why the heck do they all seem to become coaches???

Tracy said...

You're back AND still rockin' the AWESOME pink hat. Way to go on the run, sistah!

Stef0115 said...

So glad you had a great run!

Two more weeks . . . . . :-)

Southbaygirl said...

YEAH!!!!! A good run!! How awesome! I'm sorry the ironman training isn't super fun-but I bet it pays off in the end!!!

You are so super busy I don't even want to ask what race we might meet up and run together.....but I gotta meet and run with RBR!!