3(!!!)

I'm feeling better today.  We set out in a light drizzle, which intensified, likewise my energy level.   Plus the soundscape was suitable for a harder run: distant gunfire.  This enhances one of my favourite running themes: society crumbles and I must flee sensibly through the forest, avoiding roads and undue exhaustion. 

My first pass through the Triplet was pretty solid but I didn't think of breathing more effectively until halfway through the second pass.  My innards are still pretty raw and thus most of my core muscles have absolved themselves.  The last thing my body wants to do is clamp down on the sore bits.  Anyway, I had a harder but more technically sound run through the Triplet, and then when I got to the next fork in the trail, I decided to turn right for the very first time and go past the PRIVATE Trespassers will be prosecuted (shot?) sign.  The sign is old and the path I run along to return to the Triplet is actually past it; I was simply tightening a loop I've now run many times without incident.

This occasioned a third pass through the Triplet, merely for exploratory purposes, of course, but I momentarily lost nerve and my usually overeager adrenal system fired up.  Oh, man, this is going to be so hard.  But it was either this or a stupid long detour, and the Triplet is hard no matter what: best minimize duration.  The first hill was slippery and form-loosening, the second was solid though the little roots all over it irked me suddenly near the top, as always, and the third hill was euphoric.  I forgot about fatigue: my neurons unanimously decided that sensory input was superfluous and discomfort was suddenly lifted.   One of those great moments in which I forgot I was human.

The next hill was one of the smaller ones, but I walked up it.  But I jogged up the large hill out of the ravine shortly after...and then walked up the gentler incline at the top.

Almost seventy minutes of running, and now I'm thrilled to know that the Triplet can be incorporated into a loop that's only five minutes long.  That seems a really good duration for repeats.  I guess April will have a factor of three.

At home, while I was on a roll, I put heavier plates on my dumbbells and did the usual leg exercises, plus some single leg squats without weights which is becoming usual too.  I actually did the last set unmodified, though my form is still crappy.  Getting there!