Last evening. In the pouring rain. I am so "hard core". :-)
Seriously, it felt great! I only ran four relatively short hills, but it was a start and my knee held up well. I was especially pleased that running downhill didn't hurt, which was my biggest concern. Given that there will be lots of hills in San Francisco, it was a relief to begin incorporating some serious hill work into my training finally. I followed it up with some lovely long yoga stretches when I got home and iced my knee before bed to ward off any stiffness this morning - which seems to have worked.
As a reward for my efforts, I ran along a favourite path through Birch Cove Park en route home. It was still pouring rain so I had the park to myself and the path was barely passable in places on account of all the overgrown vegetation (the upside of all the rain we've had this summer.) Only a few hundred feet from a busy neighbourhood street, I felt as if I was in the midst of a forest miles from anywhere. It was magical really. In fact, it was so lovely I stopped in a small clearing for several minutes just to drink in the beauty and silence all around me.
That's what I love about running. If I didn't run, I likely would have been stuck in my apartment feeling grumpy about another evening of cool rainy weather in July. Instead, I was outside enjoying all that beauty and doing some terrific training. How great is that?!
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