Still in the forest

At least 95% of my running here will be on trails.   I'd ordered some new trail shoes in preparation (Puma) and they have been working well in minimizing bruises from tree roots (my other shoes are very light and thin-soled and those tree roots adamantly stick out of sometimes very soft sand) but the stiffness of the trail shoes also has a drawback: sideways torque is amplified.  A bit of my foot rolls in or out, and pretty much everything up to the ankle follows, if not beyond.  Fortunately, my ankles are pretty resilient, but it was shocking at first how certain little missteps were blown out of proportion. It's been at least a year or so since I've run in trail shoes.  I suppose the best recourse is to alternate shoes and thus bruises with pulls.  I am getting better at dodging tree roots, at least, and maybe I'll also get used to their hardness.

Fri: 30 min jog in the forest
Sat: 30 min jog in the forest
Sun: 60 min jog in the forest with my husband accompanying us.  He and I have slight differences in easy pace now, although nothing is entirely easy yet.   I tend to run slightly more slowly except up inclines, and then I guess I speed up.  I don't care about the hills, but I don't want to run too slowly with my husband elsewhere because he finds it uncomfortable below a certain pace.  I can run more slowly on all my other runs, and eventually I will rebuild endurance  enough to match his comfortable pace; meanwhile, my "long" (not really) runs on the weekend will be a little tougher than I'd like.  Too bad. Fortunately, the hills here are much kinder, even with the softer footing taken into account, and I've already experienced a few substantial stretches of truly easy running here.

Today: walk in the forest.  Maybe another one this afternoon.  My calves are tender.

My goals this week are longer jogs tomorrow and Thursday, followed by resistance exercises, and 20-30 minute runs the other days.  We found some more trail in the annex on Saturday, forming an additional loop between 4a (yes, there is a split to 4, which I hadn't noticed before) and 5-something-or-other.  Basically, 4a goes to a road which leads to a trail which leads to 5a? (there are a few splits further down, and I've lost track!) which leads to a trail leading to 4b; the only repetition would be the short stretch of 4 between the main trail and the split.  Maybe tomorrow I will time it.  It would be so cool to have a 30 minute loop!  Maybe that's too optimistic, but I'm pretty sure that it would be over 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I have to put approx 45-50 gallons of water into the not-quite-as-temporary koi tank in/on our screened-in patio, and there's no hose nearby.  Yes, the girls and boys are finally moving out.  For the past month and a half or so, I have been changing (and thus carrying twice) 15 litres of water every two days.  Thirty or so pounds of water wouldn't be much except that it sloshes about; it has been enough to noticeably develop some muscles in my upper abs.   I will see what 11-12 or so trips today will feel like (one down so far).   The near future will involve more lifting and some digging: koi pond construction.  I hope they won't miss listening to the TV too much!  They've had TV for about two months now.