To the River

Had planned to head to Pineland this morning, but ended up deciding to stay in bed a little later, enjoy the quiet downstairs with a cup of coffee before Sam woke up, and just run around here. I was only planning on 5 miles anyway, so it seemed a bit silly to drive an hour total to run about 45-50 minutes! Sometimes it's just nice to mellow out on a weekend morning and not have to get in the car and go anywhere. I finally headed out around 8:30 and ran through the woods down to the river. The bog bridges were slick with frost and the frozen leaves crunched beneath my feet. Got in a nice mellow 5 miles.

I'm feeling pretty good but can tell I'm not quite back to my regular self again yet. Still kind of tired. I want to run, but I don't want to push too much right now. The overall plan is to take it easy through the end of the year and then start to ramp things back up again. Of course, the fact that I'm not in top form and am not running all that much hasn't stopped me from pondering "What's next?"That is part of the fun after all!

I believe the coin toss this afternoon pointed to a road marathon this spring over a spring 50k or 6-hour run. Yes, a literal coin toss. I am no good at decisions. See entering the lottery for the 50 miler, so I didn't have to be the one to make the final choice as to whether I ran it or not ;) I'm intrigued by the thought of running another marathon - haven't run one since MDI in 2008 - and lowering that PR, although I am admittedly a bit intimidated by the training plan I'd probably have to follow to run a "fast" time. It would be a good challenge though. Assuming I actually stick with the coin toss win, I'd go for either Sugarloaf or the Maine Coast Marathon in May, and then hope to run another long trail race in the fall to even out all that road running from the spring ;) Ah, it's such fun to plan and ponder!