Go slow to go fast.

7 ish miles - 1:04 - 1000 ish feet vertical - Skunk to mesa down McClintock.

By the last half of my run this morning I simply couldn't help but feeling really really grateful to be alive.  To be healthy.  To be running free from any pain.  To be moving effortlessly across the ground.  Then it extended into feeling grateful for a ton of other things, my family, home, business, friends, etc, etc.... I love runs like that.  Each day is invariably better when I start it out running.

Nothing like the accidental time trial to get the blood pumping.

Its easy to lose track of time meandering through the flatirons foothills trails.  I was running with Brendan this morning and we got all the way down the mesa trail to Bluestem and almost back to shanahan before I realized that we had already passed the 1 part of our 1 hour run.  I had about 15 minutes to get back home on time for Nan to leave and I had over 2.5 miles to run still.  Oops!

As soon as I hit the top of lehigh I bid farewell to Brendan.  I took off and covered the last two miles to home right at 11 minutes (~375' descent).  Only ended up being 2 or 3 minutes late after all.  

And I got some speed work out of the deal!  So I guess it worked out OK.

9.5 miles - 1:23 - 8:44 avg - 1400' vert

Such a beautiful morning.  It still feels kind of odd to see the sun already high in the sky when I start running at 6:20.  I would have to start running closer to 5:30 to see a sunrise these days. 

Easy flat jog around the south boulder CU loop, south boulder creek, home on bear creek path.  Feeling great.  Getting pretty excited to be leaving for France for 10 days tomorrow.  Some epic bike rides and runs are bound to make their way into the mix.  We're going to ride Alp d'huez, mt. ventoux, the tourmalet, and I'm definitely going to see about fitting in some running up some of those as well (or instead of biking).  I'm not entirely bummed about not getting to work for a couple of weeks.  It took some time to get used to the idea, but I'm warming up to it.

 8 Miles - 1:03 - 7:57avg - 200'

Easy six miles early before driving all day to Utah

7.5 miles at the airport in Dallas around the upper deck of the parking garage.  Did 12 x 200 meter repeats at around 33 seconds each.

10 miles easy exploring the town of Nyon Switzerland.  Really cool town, saw a lot of it, and a lot of varying terrain.  From lake side flat trails to winding trails through the hills and forests...very cool run.