Double Digit Dance

I broke double digits for the first time in TWO months. 

I threw a double digit party and did a double digit dance on the trail when I finished. 

I certainly didn't intend on achieving this mightiest of goals; it just sort of happened.  As I said before, when in Palos!  Geof and I set out for Palos' Little Red Schoolhouse trails and singletrack again on Saturday.  Geof was looking for a 20 miler and I was looking for 5 running miles, and 3-4 hiking miles after that.  I just wanted to soak in the warm weather and sunshine we were gifted with that day.  But then something happened, things just...worked.  My legs said, "help me, help you."  So I did!  Maybe it was the LaSportiva Wildcats I was wearing, or maybe it was the Shot Bloks I ate.  Most likely it was the two months of almost zero running and tons of PT work, swimming and biking that did it :)  Bam.

Along the way, we ran into fellow CHUGette, Torey and her pup Charlie, out for a run on the black trail.  Great seeing you Ms. Jones!!  I was feeling swell enough to continue on after 5 miles, so I hung with Geof and we closed out the yellow and black trails before Geof turned to go do more loops and I headed back towards the car.  Before finishing up, though, I turned onto the White Oak Trail to round out the 10 miles.  Gotta make it legit.

Things were happy.  Calves, knees, popliteous, feet, ankles.  Thanks for hanging in there legs, I really do appreciate it :)

I made sure to stretch and massage while I waited for Geof to get back.  I also soaked in the sun while doing some high quality people watching.  "Woodpeckers peck wood!" exclaimed a little boy examining the trunk of a tree.  He had on a fisherman hat and cowboy boots on the wrong feet.  He then took off after another little boy, dressed identically, and they chased each other in circles.  It's neat to observe a kid running; they have excellent mechanics before they grow up and we tell them how to "fix" it.  People were out en masse that day; it was just so gorgeous out!

Monday morning, I headed out for a run and was pleasantly surprised by how good it felt.  I stopped myself at 4 miles, not wanting to press my luck, and was very happy with that.  I have now officially run more in the first 12 days of April than I did in the 31 days of March :)

I'm starting to get a little bit excited about Leadville.  Now that we have our accomodations set and crew/pacers lined up, it's going to start becoming very real, very soon.  Heck, come May, I might even start training for it :) 

But, first, I'm going to relish the little victories I achieve along the way, like pain free running and morning 4-milers.

Crash, out.