Running Towards Free

Fave kicks - Nike 3.0 v.3

You know it's "love-at-first-run" when you cannot wait to run in them again. That's what my Nike Free 3.0 v.3's are for me, my go-to-shoe for runs up to 10 miles. I have yet to try them for distances beyond 10 miles. I'm no expert in minimalist shoes like my Nike 3.0s, but I can tell you that I love feeling closer to the ground, how very flexible the soles are, and how much "faster" and free I feel running in them.
But this is not a shoe review. No. Just a post about a run that I couldn't wait to do, in my favorite running shoes on a slightly warmer day. I had 4 miles on my training calendar, and I think my expectations were high starting out on this run until I started moving. I. Felt. So. Sluggish. My first mile split says it all - 12:08 min./mile. (Daily Mile run details HERE). It was one of those runs where you just want to get it over with, but I knew I had to hang in there, so I plodded along feeling betrayed by my "fast," free shoes.

At Mile 1 - waiting to feel "free"

Am I feeling burned out already? From life? From training? I can't be! No! So I push on, stopping to take a quick pic, deciding to take it easy, just to get the miles in. (But how I long to be free).

To keep my mind off of this sluggish run, I thought about how nice it would be to run to a gorgeous view. While you can't get much scenery in suburbia, I remembered a little trail that made you forget you live in a culdesac world. So I ran to that, hoping to find my free. I got distracted by what I thought at first was a pretty cool looking thing on the ground, only to realize that what I was looking at was the remains of a doe? A deer? And where its eyes used to be. Ugh. I don't know why I thought it was something else, but then this IS suburbia!

After leaving that awful discovery, I turned and ran to where the little trail was, but stopped at the top of the hill. I was alone, and while I longed to lose myself down in that little trail....to feel the wide open-ness of the field...and trace the meandering little trail, so I can forget the monotony of my suburban life, I didn't feel safe....

...which was more disappointing than feeling sluggish at the start of my run. I've run that little trail before, but only with friends, and I wasn't about to chance it, running down there tucked below the hill, completely out of sight.

So I stopped to just look out at that little trail with my back towards the cookie cutter landscape....imagining that I was somewhere else for a few minutes. It is so peaceful down there on that little trail. Sigh.

When I was ready, I turned around to run back to my cookie-cutter world, to my routine, to my boys with fighting, angry, whining words, and ran home happy towards free.

(Imagine my surprise after I uploaded my run to Garmin Connect and saw that I got a negative split!)

Janathon Day 10

Moon Joggers Mileage To Date: 29

Plank A Day: 2:11.8 

Wall Sit: 1:33.2

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