I made the right call

I'm so glad I gave up my race spot.  It felt so nice to wake up this morning, lie in bed for awhile, and know that I wouldn't be running an ultra today.  My energy is flat and, ehhh, it's not the right time of the month and I didn't fancy doing another ultra with that going on.  Just wasn't the right time.  The 3hr jog today was fine, but 5-6 hours would've been pushing it, especially 5-6 hours on sandy trails.  1.5 hours on sand was tiring enough.  I didn't feel the glitch, but the uneven terrain was starting to chip away.

The dog and I started on hilly roads.  We did part of the hilly 5 mile tempo route, and the hills felt easier this time, even though it was sunny and humid.  It's been a long time since I've run more than 5 miles on roads, and I got into a great zone even though I periodically had to go onto the shoulder to make room for oncoming cars. I was getting more and more annoyed with this, but I still managed to rejoin the mindless road bubble very quickly.  Oh, yeah, it's easier running on a smooth surface--I forgot that.  And my breathing also settled down quickly after the hills, which is a good sign.  When I'm unfit, my breathing rate stays up for ages.

I'd hoped to run for 1.5 hours on roads today, including dog pit stops, and fortunately we took enough of those to not run out of road before we got to a particularly decisive intersection (dirt road v/s trail v/s hilly curvy narrow road that doesn't promise much of a shoulder, although I keep forgetting to check when I'm on my bike or in the car).   We reached the intersection at 1:32ish, and we ducked in the forest. 

Switching from all that road to trails was initially an annoying transition.  All of a sudden, I had to worry about where to put my feet, and that sand was so soft and energy-sucking...ugh.  But it was a bit colder in the forest, and the dog was happier.  My original thought was to run home at this time, making a 2ish hour run, but I was feeling decent and still hadn't taken my gel.  There were enough streams to keep the dog happy, and so we did an extra loop and brought the run to just over three hours.

Then I substituted yard work for cross-training.  Our house came with an absurd 'water feature', basically a mosquito-breeding pond (~100 gallons) covered with grating and stones, with a bubbling fountain in the center.  It's kind of stupid to begin with (even the realtor showing us the house was like, dafuq?), and it become superfluous once I built the koi pond behind it.  So I tore the water feature out today--admittedly, I used its pump (a decent submersible pump which I'm glad to have rescued) to remove the water, but I lifted out the rocks, concrete blocks, and grating by hand, plus I tore out the liner, and then I filled the pit up with dirt from a pile about 7-8 feet away.  I just tossed the dirt over because wheelbarrows annoy me, plus ours is slightly askew.  So, yeah, that's plenty of core work.

This way I won't feel bad about a lazy jog on the treadmill tomorrow!  There's a documentary I've been meaning to watch.