New trail

Last week it suddenly became unbearably cold. I hate treadmills and I couldn’t bring myself to go out and run before or after work. The forecast showed 3 p.m. would be the warmest part of the day, so I brought my gear to work and ducked out for an afternoon jog. I’ve been working here 4 years, and it was only on this run that I finally discovered a short rubber track near my office building that connected to a lovely little fitness trail that wound around ponds nestled behind several apartment complexes.

It was wonderful, and I decided then to make the afternoon run a regular occurence. I just wish I could hang my Enell sports bra to dry instead of stuffing it back into my gym bag all wet. Probably no one would notice if I laid it out on the floor under my desk.

I wasn't sure I'd get to run today because rain was in the forecast and rain + cold is beyond my tolerance levels, but it ended up being warmer than expected and dry while I was out. It was a dreary gray day, and the trail was unusually quiet and beautifully peaceful with far fewer people than I usually see there.

I'd worn a compression sleeve on my knee yesterday because it was considerably sore from Sunday's long run, but I couldn't stand to stay off it entirely. Today the sleeve caused more discomfort than it ameliorated, so I pulled it off early and cautiously set a slow, smooth pace with many walk breaks. It was good.

This week (Sunday-Wednesday) has been an interesting experiment in toeing the line between acceptable soreness and actual injury. I probably overdid it by a half mile Sunday. Since Monday, I struggle at the start of each run but at the end feel that movement has been beneficial and aided my knee's healing.

The fitness trail has miscellaneous boards and bars along its length and plaques describing exercises, so I've been dabbling on a few of the pieces. Today I surprised myself when I successfully traversed the length of two parallel bars overhead while hanging. (Think: monkey bars without any short crossbars.)

I also saw some enormous koi in the ponds, easily 18+ inches. I look forward to taking more pictures out there in the coming weeks.

I finished my run and came back into the office to find the last cookie in the break room calling my name. It was great.