My View

I went for a nice run today. It was nice because I got to run naked and let loose. What? That means I got to leave the HR monitor home and go fast! That's what Jen tells me, leave the heartrate monitor home and run naked. Gotta love it. I was told to work the middle 4 miles. I was fired up for this run. I've been waiting for this kind of run. I've been on the keep it moderate list for way too long because of this foot but now I've been let out of my cage. This is also a rest week. (sort of a joke because it's school vacation week and I have 3 boys and very little snow to play in and so there isn't a lot of resting going on for this Mama bear.) But in terms of training, yes, the load is quite light. So back to my run. Since I was given instructions to push push hard on those middle 4 miles, I intended to do just that. I had two choices. I could stay in my neighborhood, at the top of the hill (you'll see) and run 1 mile loops to keep the course flat and fast. If I did that...I could report a nice speedy pace back to Coach on Training Peaks. Hmmm. OR...I could make the choice that will make me faster. And stronger. But it's the course that would hurt more and appear slower. The pace that I typed into that little block on TP wouldn't be nearly as impressive. Here's where I ran.

Out my door and UP the hill. It's 1/2 mile up. I start every single run of my life...up.this.Hill.

I decided to finally take some pictures of this running route I love. The pictures really really don't do it justice. But I'll try. After cresting the hill above, I turn right and head down the one flat stretch of road. It lasts about . 3. yippy.

and then I climb this bad boy.

Here's where my photo tour falls apart a little bit. Idon't have shots that show all the hills in between that last one and this down hill. Trust me...it's a continuous game of up and down. The climbs are steep and quite long. It's beautiful and it's unforgiving. It's the best training land around. You can't find an easy 6 miles regardless of how hard you try. Unless of course, you want to run around and around and around in circles.

I took pictures of these downhill areas because the sun was behind me. The shots going uphill were overexposed. But remember, I had to turn around and go back Up these puppies. You know, the pictures aren't that effective...it's hard to get the full picture.

Here's the best thing....our natural spring water stop. The water is tested and 100% clean and safe. It's absolutely delicious on hot summer days. I can stop here for a drink multiple times on my runs on this route. It's perfect.

This is actually the toughest climb on the road. It appears immediately after the water stop. The picture is blurry...but trust me...it goes on and on and on. When I say these are steep, I have to fight to break 11 min miles on these. It's tough stuff... What you see as the top in this picture, isn't really the top. It turns and keeps going. And it's much much prettier with snow on the trees...maybe next year.

Here's the point of this post. Don't take the easy route. We all want to break barriers. We want to be faster and stronger. We want to beat the person we haven't beaten before.

There are lots of ingredients to getting there. You must work hard and keep your eye on the prize. So when you are given a choice, the easy route or the hard route, never never take the easy way out. It won't get you to that new --faster---stronger--place.

Just go for it. Every time.