Double Digits :D

A much sunnier day on West Cliff. Picture this with lots of grey coulds :)

Guess what?!?!

I ran 10 miles today :)

And it was lovely. I actually felt normal a times. The day was beautiful (and warmer than I expected) and I didn't want to turn around after 5 to come back, but figured that I should since I'm only just getting back into this whole thing. My leg felt pretty good overall and my back (which has been bothering me) felt okay as well.

I parked about .8 miles from west cliff and ran from there down this nice dirt pathway to west cliff and continued my normal route until about .5 onto the bike trail. The waves were beautiful this morning, with a surfing competition going on down there. Everying was just lovely. One of the things I've missed most is reaching that point where miles just float by and you can escape the world for just a little while.

One of the most helpful things about this run was that it helped me process a difficulty that I'm having with an element of my graduate program. It is hopefully not a big deal and seems much smaller today than it did before the run, but I really needed that time to both think about it and not think about it. Running is wonderful because it allows my mind to drift in and out of topics without letting it obsess about any one thing. Any time I got too worked up or too focused on the issue, a charming chorus of "OKLAHOMA" or "Sound of Music" would come on my ipod and I'd have to start lip synching along, forgetting my troubles for just a bit. I love, absolutely, love lip synching while I'm running. I can't sing worth anything, and lip synching makes me quite happy :).

Overall, this week has been great. I explored a trail right by my student teaching placement with Ed after school wednesday, which took on on awesome trails (and hills), down to a swollen river and up to an observation deck. The only real negative of that run was that I had an incredibly close encounter with the gross. As Ed and I were down on a trail right above the river, we came to a part where a branch-y part of a tree was blocking the trail. Ed went first, and I was standing I on the other side trying to figure out how I was going to get over it, when I came to the realization that the ground I was standing on felt sort of funny. I looked down, and, once I processed what I saw, realized that I was standing fully on top of half a dead rabbit!!! Not just a toe, not even just a foot on top of this, but both feet right on it. Ugh!!! Of course, that then made me simultaneously grossed out and now worried about mountain lions in the area. Pretty sure that rabbit was pretty old, though, so I don't think we had anything to worry about. The highlight of the run was witnessing some panoramic views of santa cruz greenery and ocean from an overlook point, and going up to an observation deck via a sand covered trail (the sand is left over from when this entire area was an ancient sea bed 4 million years ago!). We had fun (and even had a few stream crossings to manage).

I did a nice 4 on tuesday and thursday as well, bringing my current total for the week up to 22. 25. I'm hoping for 4 or so tomorrow, meaning I'll break 25 this week :). Hallalujiah!

My leg has been seeming a bit better lately too. The aleve, I"m sure, is helping, but maybe somehow the running is too. My back started really hurting the last few days (in part probably because I've been carrying around a ridiculous amount of books planning for a unit on missions) but seemed much better today. Hopefully by the time physical therapy rolls around there'll be less to fix!

Thanks everyone for the awesome support as I'm trying to get back into this lovely world :D