Running In Place

I do so love this season! The air is cool and dry, the colors are beautiful, the deer come around to eat off our apple tree, Tom Turkey and his harem are hanging out in the front yard again. Here in the foothills of the Adirondacks, where we already have 50 degree days and 30 degree nights, where the beautiful red, yellow, and orange leaves will be gone in 2 weeks tops, and where by the end of the month we may well have snow cover, I am reminded again how overwhelmingly beautiful I find this area. The only thing I’m sad about is that the hummingbirds are gone.

My sister and I will do a little mountain climbing while we can this month, starting with ushering her Girl Scout troop up Bald Mountain . Then, when the snow comes it will be time for x-country and downhill skiing. Not that I’m very good at either of these but for some reason I feel much more alive and wanting to be active in the cold weather months than in the summer. I’m hoping to make alot of progress with running during this time as well. I’m feeling happy.

So, running - well today I felt a great deal better than I have and since my congestion had decreased so considerably I thought “why not, if I can’t breath I’ll walk it.” It was a beautiful day - sunny, mid-50’s, breeze - so perfect. Doing the 5:1’s x 5 reps went fine. I was feeling kind of fatigued but I just kept it slow and felt great for having gotten out and moving after a few days on the couch. As I was heading back and about a mile and a half from the parking area, a group of 15 or 20 guys were accumulating at the access road that crosses the trail. They looked military and all had on matching t-shirts that said C.E.R.T. Team. I kept chugging along and when I was near the end of the trail, doing my cool down walking, along they came charging. I beat feet over to the grass and stayed out of the way. At the end there was a guy calling out times, though I didn’t catch any of them. Turns out they were the Corrections Emergency Response Team from one of the 4 prisions in our area. They handle prisoner unrest and uprisings, and also transport prisoners. They are periodically required to demonstrate their physical fitness to stay on the team. One guy was over on the grass throwing up and the guy I briefly talked to said “I hate running.” Well sure, if running a mile as fast as you can once a year is your only exposure. He said “do you like it??” To which I responded with a big ol’ smile and said “I love it!!!”