Wandering in the dark.

Here's my day:
Breakfast
Work
Work
Work
Lunch
Work
Work
Work
Look up...realize it's dark. UGH.
I had planned to go for a run today. How did it get so dark? So I whined to myself for a bit. Called D, so she could convince me to go for it. And that's exactly what I did. Reflective vest and headlamp on I headed out the door.

As I mentioned, I'm taking it easy this week and next. The plan was to run twenty minutes. I headed down the powerlines. I don't think the batteries in my headlamp are so good. Probably should have checked those first. There is a fair amount of sand along the powerlines, and I think today I saw it in all its forms: loose, solid, frozen, semi-frozen, breakable crust and a couple others. It was really weird and really not that fun to run on. So instead of the out and back like I planned, I took a left up the road into Highland Green at which point I had a brilliant idea: run to the golf course clubhouse, run up the first hole and connect back to the trails I usually run on. Seemed simple enough. I'd seen the first green from the trails hundreds of times. Then again, I'd never actually run that connection. Oh yeah, it was dark. So, I'm an idiot. Couldn't find the connection, turned around, tried to bushwhack back to the road, nearly fell into a stream, tried to bushwhack again, slipped into a tree, then finally made it back to the road. Back on the road, back down the powerlines and safely home. Instead of 20 minutes, it was more like 30. No big deal, but more running and more adventure then I had planned on.

The run did give me a cool idea for a workout. The golf course is closed, so it could make for a cool fartlek. Run the holes hard and recover on the cart paths between the holes. The course is pretty spread out, so there'd be a fair amount of recovery. Plus, none of the cart paths are paved, so it would essentially be all on trails. Maybe I'll give that a try in the next couple weeks getting ready for the race I have on my calendar. (More on that later.)