The Little Miami Scenic Trail: Pictures!

I'm feeling extremely lazy and uncreative today, so I'm not going to write a lot about my run this noon-ish. I tried a new trail: Little Miami Scenic Trail. It's a 56.4 mile trail that starts in Newtown at the Little Miami Golf Center, my favorite place to golf. (Okay, so it's the only place I've ever golfed, but it's my favorite.)

I elected to start about 300 feet down the street from the golf course at the Bass Island park/parking lot.




Here's where I started Week 6, Day 2 of Couch to 5K (Warmup 5, run 10, walk 3, run 10, cool down 5). FYI, no hunting on the trail.




The tunnel under Newtown Road. The roadway above was strikingly thin. Weird.





Here's the beginning of the stretch along Wooster Pike (Rt. 50). It was a great day for a run. 65-ish degrees, half cloudy/half sunny.





There are signs posted along the way about trail and river history. I ... didn't read any of them. But I did read the first sentence of this one. Apparently this path used to be a railroad.

Here's the foot bridge and road bridge over the Little Miami River.

The river. If you look closely you can see lots of ... discarded tires.

So, Day 2 was more difficult than I anticipated. I think there's some value in doing these long runs on paths you actually know. Then, you know what to expect and where to start waiting for Mr. C25K to pipe in. This was my first out-and-back experience on this program, so I was just huffing and puffing and waiting and waiting for Mr. C25K to say "walk now" and then "halfway" so I could turn around and head back. The second 10 minutes was easier because I knew what to expect and had a good idea where I was going to be finished.

I may have to do some self-coercion tomorrow to get myself out to run. I think the lazy bug bit me this weekend. Blah. Running is hard. [wink wink]

Morning Workouts With Jackie Warner

Man, I'm slipping into slackerhood with these updates. It turns out that inactivity breeds more inactivity and laziness. I have no excuses ... just laziness.

Anyway, this morning marks the beginning of the new session of Adventure Boot Camp and I am not there. I am, however, doing my own morning workouts. I've now done two of the three Jackie Warner workouts on Exercise On-Demand. I like what she has to offer so far, and since I'm dropping my fancy cable beginning Saturday, I'll have to go buy the DVD. Good thing it's cheap-o on Amazon. And at least I've tried it before buying it.

That's my short update this morning, folks. I'll check back in soon and try not to let myself slip back to the two-posts-a-week groove. I may or may not have woken up in the middle of the night thinking, "Oh my god! I haven't updated my blog!" Don't worry. I fell peacefully back to sleep.

Have a Monday, because I know no Monday can be good. =)

Little Victories, Episode 1: Today's Run Sucked

Well, it's true. Today's run was not fun. I had several elements working against me today, and I almost succumbed to the most vicious one: laziness. But, I didn't. I went to the park and I finished the workout. Little victory #1: Left the house. Little victory #2: Finished the run.

Let's see, here's my list: tired from moving, sore from painting (squatting, reaching, rolling, etc.), queasy and uncomfortably from cramps (sorry guys), sleepy from being waken up by my screeching and fighting animals, and a little congested from one allergy or another.

So yeah, despite all that, I got up and went. And I hated it the whole time. This is no, "I'm so glad I went because it all got better when I started running" story. Legs hurt, stomach hurt, arms hurt, COULDN'T BREATHE!

Little victory #3: First run of the season in high humidity (86% on my Weather Channel app). With that, I'm officially not looking forward to running this summer.

Let's continue the whining, shall we? I actually cut my second to last running interval short by about 5 seconds. Pathetic. Why not just go the last 5 seconds? It's not like I wouldn't have recovered somehow, right?

On that note, little victory #4: Running the last leg even though I excused myself from doing it after the second to last leg. I did it slow, and it hurt, and I whined internally the whole time, but I did it.

Little victory #5: Despite my whining and moaning and lack of oxygen, I somehow managed to finish only slightly behind my normal pace. Two miles in 28:20 (instead of two miles in 28:00).

Finally, little victory #6: I felt great after and for the remainder of the day. Lesson learned, again. And I'm glad I got to run after having so many days off (haven't worked out since Tuesday).

Sorry for the rant. Let's call this a slump. I think my future motivation on these crappy days will be to step back a "week" in the workout. I could have done Week 1 today and finished fine. It would have been less painful and I wouldn't have been so close to quitting. But is that okay? Do I allow myself that concession?

What about you? I still want to know when you know you need to walk instead of run. Do you ever give yourself an easy workout?

Next run: TBD.

This is the last week of the moving fiasco that is April. Things will be getting easier. I am considering giving myself a try at a treadmill workout. I haven't tried it yet. What should I expect? Easier or harder?