The Spring of....Slow

This was supposed to be the Spring of Speed.

But sometimes the universe doesn't want speed from you.

So you have to switch to slow.

How slow?

Five-year-old slow!

My new plan for spring (besides doing my PT exercises and recumbent bike workouts as faithfully as possible) is to take my kids for a hike every Friday morning.

These hikes are not far (I doubt this morning's added up to a mile and a half). These hikes are not fast (we had to stop so they could climb the tree as you see above; we had to stop for a snack; we had to stop to gather cedar berries--and we were out for only a little over an hour). But this was the second Friday spent this way--and it's fun.

Besides being fun, these hikes are doing wonders for:

1) Getting me some fresh air, which is sorely lacking at the gym. Don't get me wrong, it's a nice gym, and the 30-minute interval workouts are doing more for me than I thought they would...but gyms smell like gyms. They are artificially lit. The only breezes come from fans.

In contrast, today's trail featured bluffs 1,000 feet up from the trailhead, the bluest of blue skies, a little wind that took the edge off the July-like sun (anyone else a bit freaked out by this weather? I personally would like a little more precipitation) and the scent of sage, evergreens and a hint of the mountains that were so close we could no longer see them on the horizon as we drove up. Because, ladies and gentlemen, we were ON that horizon.

2) Getting my kids some fresh air. And getting them to explore all the trails I've been waiting five years for them to be big enough to enjoy. In mid-August, they will go to kindergarten. After that, I won't have Friday mornings with them again until they are almost six-and-a-half. And I have to say, watching my tiny slip of a daughter racing ahead of me and her brother on the trail today....it was almost as good as being able to run myself. She asked me today if she could beat me yet. I told her not yet (though of course she CAN beat me because she can run, and I can't).

3) Reconnaissance for the future: when I'm allowed to run again, I want to do a chunk of it on trails. I know road races require road training. But trail running is my true love. You have to stay in touch with the love.

A Spring of Slow was not what I had in mind, not by a long shot. But I'll take it. I think it was meant to be, for more than one reason.

Ninja Trail Runner?

The new Asics are white no more.

Trail runs are the #1 thing I like right now.

Today originally was supposed to include a return to Magnolia Road, the classic Boulder run. Kathy was going to come up to run it with me, as she needs some serious hill challenges ahead of April's Big Sur Marathon (and me, I just like Ol' Mags).

But the cold I mentioned after last week's Snowman Stampede 5 Mile race turned out to be a bigger foe than I thought. I ended up shuffling through the Presidents' Day holiday and then feeling so bad that I stayed home from work on Tuesday AND Wednesday. I managed a weak 50-minute run on Tuesday, but afterwards had one those headaches, very rare for me, that start with flashers and end up with me in bed for a couple of hours in the dark. So Wednesday I just cut my losses and went straight for the bed. The one good thing about it is that it explains my disappointing performance in the race the prior Saturday.

I'm much better now, but I wasn't up for Ol Mags and her 8,000-plus-foot elevation and hills. I did want something interesting, though, so I ran an out-and-back at Hall Ranch, whose trails are better known for mountain biking, just west of a quirky little town called Lyons in North Boulder County. It's not spring yet, but the mud that marks our trails in that season was already an obstacle. For two hours, I slopped through it and some lingering snow under crystal clear skies, passing only two bikers on the way out and several more bikers, plus three hikers, on the way back.

Sometimes I need to do runs like this to remind myself I live in Colorado. Many of my days, as nice as they are, full of library books, preschool activities, grocery shopping and time on the Internet, could be lived anywhere. But it's outside in Colorado that you get the whoosh of the wind through evergreens, the intoxication of crushed pine under dirty trail shoes, the glitter of quartz in the half-buried stones you hurdle on the climbs, and the sight of the hoary heads of Long's Peak and Meeker Mountain rearing above you as you round a bend and emerge from a forest into a burn field.

Another thing I like right now are these:

My son Will holding my new *black* Asics. Maybe I should've worn those on the trail. Nah--I need real trail shoes.

Black is my favorite color to wear. The women in my wedding party wore black (and they each chose their own dress in that shade; I wanted them to have a dress they actually liked, and we all know I have no taste anyway). And if I'm not attired like a ninja while running, I feel gaudy.

So when I saw that my Asics GT-2170s come in all black, I wanted some. I didn't want to spend another $110, however. So I went to Zappo's and found last year's model (the 2160) in all black on sale for $80. They arrived the day after I ordered them. I can't wait to wear them on my next easy run (which will be tomorrow since I missed so many runs during the week).

In all their inky glory!

Seriously, though, I had been wanting a second pair of shoes to alternate in with my others. My back and hip's aches are still very much there and will be at least until March 6, when I see the physical therapist my doctor recommended. I'm doing all I can to make things easier on my body without scrimping on training (avoiding a two-hour run on concrete today was part of that plan, too).

If while doing that I can look even more like a ninja on some runs, all the better!