The Upside of Hills is their Downside!

Yesterday I did a bit of a weights session at the gym, did a couple of short sprints and floor exercises. I love doing stomach crunches with a medicine ball. I think all this running has finally shaken my brain into madness!

Had a very late night last night and so yet again managed not to make it to the saturday morning BRB run. I think that I will have to admit defeat at attempting to attend any regular runs on a saturday morning - try as I might, I am just not able to make myself get out of bed after three hours sleep, on a saturday!

I am sort of unrepetentant however, because instead, I spent a lovely afternoon running up and then down the JC Slaughter falls track to the summit of Mount Cootha and back. No idea how long it took me as I decided just to enjoy it and not worry about how fast/slow I went or how many walk breaks I took (and there were quite a few!)

Not very far (2km ish up, 2km ish down, plus about another k back to where I parked the car. It felt really good to do a few hills and I enjoyed the change of scenery and surface. Speaking of which, my left foot is now sore again and the right one is fine. No idea what is going on there - must remember to get my shoes checked!

The best part of the run was by far, getting right to the top, looking at the view for a few minutes, then running down the track - felt like I was flying, no effort involved and had lots of fun jumping over the steps along the way. Lovely. I do like the bush (not that Mt Cootha is out in the wilds!) the smells, quietness and the calmness of it. It's good for the soul, I think :) Definitely left me feeling at one with everything :) (Endorphins: don't you just love 'em?)

As I was running down the track, I remembered the very first time I walked that trail, early last year, puffing and panting and thinking the occasional runner I saw bolt past me must be insane. Now I'm one of the *insane* people. It sort of put a few things into perspective for me and made me realise how stupid it is for me to moan about my times etc - even if I never get any faster at running, at least I'm lucky enough to now be able to run and to love it - this time last year, I couldn't do that :) I did have to giggle when I saw a guy actually carrying his dog up the trail!

Tomorrow morning, as long as my foot is okay, I'm going to do the 14km at the West End :)