3 mile trial

So I have plotted a route that is almost exactly 3 miles long, just a little 0.01 or so over.  As much as I'm a fan of randomly jogging/exploring and listening to my body and all that, I'm craving some sort of

not structure, per se, but a plug-n-play deal.  When I hoist my zombie body out of bed these mornings, I want to drop it onto a track on cruise control.  I'm going through an automaton stage and discovery is on the back burner.  And I can't listen to my body here because the hills still make things sort of hurt most of the time.   The 2.5 mile creek path route has been working great, now I need something a bit longer.

So we tried out my new 3 mile route.  It turned out to be more tough than I'd anticipated, but also more poetic, which is more than enough compensation.   It's like a mini milder version of the 8 mile loop: a punishing ascent which is really a punishing descent into the most inaccessible and most grudgingly granted energy reservoirs.  And then after digging into/onto the summit in this fashion, one receives the immediate reward of a long downhill stretch.

So, the route's a gentle rejuvenating downhill to the creek then a series of five steps follows.  Hills, but each one gains a bit of altitude overall.  The last hill is the shortest and steepest, a final ruthless kick onto a gradual decline on overgrown and shaded brick sidewalks past stately old mansions (and other things including what I think is a tavern--I still don't know if this town actually has zoning laws--my short street has, among other things, houses of widely varying sizes, some church stuff, a fruit store, a cabinet store, a social assistance centre, and a former feed factory (as in, animal feed)).   And then we cross the creek again, running onto concrete and into the sun and up the hill back home.

It was kind of hot by the time we set out, almost 80F, whatever that is, and humid, and sunny, but there was still a lot of shade on the route.

I think that if we do this every second day for a couple of weeks, that would be a good start.  It's barely longer than the creek path route but much bumpier.

After the run, I did some pushups and things.  I was too tired to find and follow a routine.