Sunday is the designated long-run day in our household as Saturday we’re usually feeling a bit jaded from the Friday night happy hour we celebrate on a weekly basis.  Okay, just joking about the feeling jaded part.  We have other schtuff to do on Saturday, so it works out best that we run long on Sunday.  And as today was Sunday, yes, it was long-run day!  But I’ll get to that in a bit…

Last Sunday was my first long-ish run since having knee pain during the Lake Sammamish Half Marathon.  I was so happy to finally hit the trail to test the waters.  But then I came upon this:

This burning pile of trash was about 100 feet from the trail.  Yes, I climbed an embankment and possibly trespassed in order to get this picture, but are you freaking kidding me?!  There was an area so thick with smoke on the trail, I had to breathe through my shirt.  And when you’ve been running, that’s not pleasant!  However, burning trash is apparently legal.  Can’t smoke a cigarette in a public park, but by damn, get that heaping pile of trash burning so all the health nuts on the trail who want a breath of fresh air can’t get any!  I wasn’t impressed.  And the City of Lake Stevens didn’t care.  Whatever.  Okay, rant over.  Sorry.  Just had to.

Anyway, last week’s run was pain-free, so I’m back in the running business.  James and I think we may have figured out what was causing my knee pain… I like to sit with my feet and legs tucked up underneath me.  Sometimes it tweaks the position of the knee, hence, knee pain. I’ve had to force myself to sit properly and it’s not been easy to attempt to break that life-long habit.

The skunk lilies are starting to bloom on the trail.  Just wait until they get full size… I’ll do a comparison side-by-side.  They’re beautiful, BUT, everything now completely smells like their namesake.  Things that make you go hmmm….

Probably TMI, but the above was only 5 days’ worth of running gear; I got behind on laundry, sue me.  I’ve explained to James that he no longer is allowed to double up his layers no matter how cold it is, and if he decides to do a bike ride and run all in the same day, he has to wear the same cycling shorts and cycling shirt to run in.  (Haha… you’ll probably only understand how funny that is if you know one or are an avid cyclist.)  😀

Apparently the Easter Bunny visited our house last night and brought me an Easter basket.  And by me, I really mean AJ.  Mind you, I’ve helped him out quite a bit with those jelly beans and robin’s eggs.  He devoured the Peeps first and foremost… yep, that’s my boy, no mistake about it.  (Yes Peeps are gross!  They’re supposed to be gross!  But they’re a tradition, and you just don’t mess with tradition!)

This gorgeous guy was seen on my run today at the soccer fields.  Oh Hey!  Why’d the chicken cross the road?  To attack me, of course!  Okay, kidding… first of all, it’s a rooster.  Second of all, it was raining and all the worms were out… so he was just getting his protein for the day.

Weird weather day today.  I wanted to get up at the crack of dawn and get my run out of the way so I could have my mandatory body shutdown for an hour then get on with it.  But ’twas not to be.  I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the downpour to stop.  Finally at about noon (3 hours after my originally planned departure time), the heavens took a break and I headed out.  I went to the soccer fields to run laps because a thunderstorm was predicted and I needed to be able to have a quick getaway plan… I don’t do thunder and lightning.

Round and round I went… through sun, light rain, hard rain, and even hail.  I was super happy to have restroom facilities right there… I made use of them no less than 3 times.  It was also nice having my car right there… it had all my water and towels and GU and what-not stashed away.  Handy dandy.  Jamesy was running his 20 miler today, and he met up with me and ran about 20 laps or so (one loses track when one is running around in circles).  I had all his extra gear in the car as well.  It was a great setup!

Meep

Sheba

Tragedy ensued smack dab in the middle of my run.  I got a call from a hysterical AJ… Sheba and Meeps were fighting and killing each other (no worries… I paused my watch). Home I drove… (thank heavens I was at an actual location that I could drive home and wasn’t 10 miles deep into the trail…) and then I separated the two cats.  No harm, no foul, although tonight, Sheba is nowhere to be found.

Back I went to resume my run and my built-in aid station for James and I.  He was still going round and round.  Finally, finally, finally we were nearing the end of our long runs.  He still had 5 miles to go.  I called it a day at some point.

I felt the bunny ears were appropriate for today.  That’s me above finishing up my last half mile. (Next week’s run will be further… should I do 11, or should I do 12?  Hmmmm…)

Salt Lake City Half-Marathon in 20 days.  Good gawd I’m going to hurt after this next half.  But a song came on during my run today that reminded me what I’m all about…

2 Legit 2 Quit…  which would also be my selection for Jamesy’s Motivational Music Monday this week.  Go check out his pick for the week and even add your own.  We all need to pump up our playlists… 10 to 20 miles is a long way to run without something kicking your ass into gear.

On that note, Happy Easter!  Hope you have a fabulous week!