Road to Joy

I ran out at my sister's yet again.  This time I ran in the morning before the sleep deprivation effects could really sink in.  I wish I could blame my kids for me getting no sleep, but this time I stayed up too late talking to my sister and her husband.  Unfortunately they are way too easy and fun to talk to.  It kills me every time.  Anyhow, I was able to keep an 8:20 pace and it felt nice and easy and relaxing.  I'm not sure if I should be pushing my long-runs any harder.  Right now I feel completely unintimidated by them because I know I'll let myself relax and I always hit a groove around mile two or three.  By the time I get up to fifteen or sixteen miles the intimidation sets back in again, though.  That's something to worry about later.

There are a lot of good qualities about where my sister lives as far as getting a running work-out is concerned.  There are nice rolling hills, ubiquitous enough that a gal can't get lazy and find a flat long run route.  There is very little traffic so a mother doesn't have to worry about orphaning her young children all because she didn't want to muff her pace.  There are empty fields that run into a lake that you can see a snow-capped mountain range behind so some of an aesthete's running pain can be dulled by the beauty.  And there are lots of other runners out on Saturday mornings to motivate an overly-competitve soul to look like and act like a fast runner.  But best of all, the very, extremely best of all thing about where my sister lives for a runner is that there is lots of new construction going on.  And at houses that are being constructed there are often porta-potties for the workers to use.  And they are never locked.  I really, really, really value that.