Sunday Run, Trail Run

I'm in that period of my training where the Sunday workout is a 90 minute run.

Well, I have to be honest, any Sunday I don't race is usually a 90 minute run (sometimes longer or shorter, but I haven't done 2 hours since late October or less than 75 minutes that I can remember). But this time of year that run is especially ingrained.

I usually run alone, although occasionally I'll get together with one of my Force 5 teammates to run. Today, one of the team, Jay, invited us over to run the trails in Guilford and with an offer to watch Ian from his wife, that gave Margit and I a rare chance to get our workouts in together, and actually run together as well.

We had a really heavy frost down by the shore last night, so once we got into the woods it was an interesting run, because there was standing water in some places, safe ice in others and a few places where it was slick. The sun was out and the sky was bright blue so it was a beautiful day to be in the woods.

I let Jay, as the host, pick the route and follow the trail and just kind of hung back a little and enjoyed the run. It's good to go out with a group sometimes and let the group sort of lead the way. Otherwise I end up out in front, not because I'm faster but because I have a tendency to want to lead the run. That's why it's also good to run with EH sometimes, where my goal is to survive.

It was a good time. We were able to talk as a group, caught some great views, bushwacked just a little and got in just enough technical trail running to make it a nice change of pace. Steve even helped me not spend an extra half hour tracking down my Oakleys.

If you always run alone, find a local group, and even if it's once or twice a month, get out with someone besides yourself, unplug the ipod and have a good time. Groups like Force 5 and Sound Runner here in Branford do several runs most weeks...