Random Run

This morning, I had a little bit of that relaxation I was looking for yesterday - a 1/2 hour leg massage. Ahhh...  My calves and feet have been feeling tight, and I don't want them to get worse. I am not quite sure why my feet feel tight - perhaps it is a combination of needing new 'wear around' shoes since the Salomon snow clogs I wear in snowy/slushy weather are many years old and aren't all that comfortable anymore, running on more roads, and running on soft snow where my foot is flexing more... Who knows? Anyway, I figured a massage would be a good thing, and it sure felt great.

Unfortunately, the other thing I had on my schedule for today was a long run, and I just wasn't feeling it. It was cold and grey out, and I wasn't feeling motivated *at all*. So, I came home, had a big snack, did some laundry and house cleaning, and gave myself time to bounce around the idea of going out for at least a 2 hour run and get my head in the right place for that. My "plan," if you can call it that, was calling for 18 miles today, but I knew that wasn't going to happen. I figured if I could get in 12 miles or 2 hours, I could call it a decent day, and I'd run 18 next week instead. Yes, as you can tell, I am following my training plan to the letter around here :-) Ha.

Finally, around 11:30, I felt like I couldn't delay things any longer, so I bundled up and headed out. When I called to tell Ryan how I was feeling, he suggested simply heading out on the powerlines and seeing where the run took me. It was a good idea, but given my lack of motivation, I felt I needed a bit more of a planned route. I figured I would run the Highland Green Road loop and then continue out on the powerlines. The road portion would ensure some easier mileage, and doing an out-and-back on the powerlines would mean I could turn around at whatever point felt right. The snowmobiles trail on the powerlines appeared to have been groomed, which was great, but it had been churned up just enough to make it a bit tough to run on. Of course, on the roads, the slush on the sides was messy and tough to run in too, so it was a toss up. In fact, the best part of the whole run condition-wise was the backside of the HG road - packed dirt topped with packed snow. I took the connector down to Tedford Road, and then got back on the powerlines near Topsham Crossing. I continued on the snowmobile trail out to Lover's Lane and had intended to keep going, but at that point, the trail wandered through this sort of weird wasteland section and I got a creepy vibe out there. I wasn't quite sure of the surrounding area, and decided I would be happier turning around. So, turn around I did. I retraced my steps through Highland Green, and added on a bit in a few spots to ensure I would hit 12 miles by the time I got back home. It worked. The Garmin read 12.0 and 1:58:29 at the end of the side drive.

I was happy to have gotten this run in, although it was tough work and my legs felt pretty heavy and tired. I wish it was because I was running a lot of high mileage weeks, but that's not the case. It may just have not been my day, but I think it's a combination of several decent mileage weeks (for me) plus some harder trail conditions on a number of recent runs. Of course, add in the fact that I have not gotten an uninterrupted night of sleep in over 15 months, and although the body adjusts to what it is given, I know I am just not recovering as I should be since I am not sleeping as much as I should be. Oh well. Sam is only small once. And really, she actually is sleeping better. She is just not sleeping long stretches when I want to be asleep :-) Guess, I should start going to bed at 6:45 with her!!