A chill weekend hanging around the Cul-De-Sac-Shack doing nothing much had me anxious to get back in the woods on Monday morning. And that’s what I did.
Even though the calendar says it’s June now, the temps were in the low 40s when my feet hit the trail at 6:50 this morning. But the sun was shining, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky when I started out, so it was easy enough to deal with some cold digits.
I made some adjustments to one of my 7-mile loops, and I think I finally have it dialed in to make it part of the steady rotation, at least until they close the suspension bridge over the river in November. But let’s not think of such hellish months quite yet.
About halfway through, I ran into The Guy My Imagination Thought Be Living In The Park and his dog Lola (not mine, but a sweetheart of a pitbull), and he actually wanted to show me some photos of Lola (not mine) after she got in a battle with a porcupine in his backyard last week. I felt so bad for her! I also find it sort of funny that I have NO idea what this cat’s name is, but I see him and Lola (not mine) enough that he wanted to share a photo with me. Some day, I’ll ask him his name and then promptly forget it and be forced to continue calling him The Guy My Imagination Thought Be Living In The Park.
I don’t know what’s been wrong with me lately, but my photo game is WAY off, and I’ve been struggling to find critters. When I do, they are either too obscured by leaves and trees, or they get spooked before I can get a shot. So, nothing you see here is from today but from slacking around the house this weekend practicing some macro shit, drinking Guinness whilst watching the Champions League final, and eating more pita pizza.
As you may have read earlier, I did a 7-mile loop (7.05), and I felt really good the whole time. In fact, I was a little weirded out by how good I felt hiking 7 miles on an empty stomach in the early morning. Part of me knows that it’s time to up my game again and probably start “running” again soon.
I told myself that I would give myself until June to get back into a steady lumbering routine and build my fitness back up after a stressful and sickly winter, but now that June is here, I’m like, “I don’t wanna!!!”
Don’t get me wrong, I loved every “run” I did last summer, and the increased intensity did wonders for my fitness, but with things going so good for me physically right now, I fear injury and time off feetz during my favorite time of the year.
The 390 calorie Soiled (Turkey) Pepperoni Pita Pizza has become my go-to lunch lately.
But I also know that something needs to budge ’cause I hiked 7 miles today and felt like I did 4. That’s great, but it also tells me that I need to push harder or go further. And, going further can be a time suck, so it’s either start adding in my version of running again or some cycling, which allows me to get intense efforts in my legs but in less time, with less chance of an injury unless I crash. We’ll see what happens; whether it was intense or not, it was pretty sweet to have 7 miles in my feetz before 9 AM.
Later.