Running for the sake of running

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running selfie with Cedar


It is so easy to get caught up in how many miles you are running each week or your strava stats, especially when you are training for a race. I spent the better part of this year training for the Waldo 100k in August. I really loved pushing myself outside of my comfort zone training for Waldo and feeling myself get stronger. Susan and I were so happy that we completed a 100k, which we had not done in 4 years. After the race a took a full week off of running to let my body recover and I thought I would be so excited to get back on the trails without having the pressure to train for the race. But that actually wasn't the case, I didn't feel like something was missing, I just didn't feel excited about running. I was doing it because it was part of my daily routine and I am afraid not to do it because it so much of who I am.
hanging out in the van ready for a run


 Honestly it wasn't until 2 weeks ago (it is now mid October) that I started to feel the joy of running again. Susan and my husband were both out of town for 2 weekends in a row, so I found myself with a little bit of free time on my hands. I thought about just running in Forest Park with Cedar but to be honest I was getting bored of the same trails and routes. So I loaded up the dog in the van and headed out towards Mt Hood. 
burnt lake


 The first weekend we only ran ~7 miles to Burnt Lake. But there was something freeing about being on different trails with Cedar off leash and just running and not caring how far we were going. I was just so effing happy during that run, so much so that I ended up chatting with another runner at the end of the run about how awesome the run was. I am pretty sure he thought I was insane. 
snow on the muddy fork


 The following weekend we (me and Cedar) decided to camp in the van near the Ramona Falls trailhead and run the Bald Mountain loop the next day. I've run the ~13.5 mile loop quite a bit but never this late in the year and I had never done it with Cedar. I was a little worried about the bridgeless river crossings with Cedar but the water levels on the Sandy and Muddy Fork were a lot lower than I am use to in early summer, he didn't have a problem at all. 
Bald Mountain

We encountered more snow than I expected and Cedar was thrilled, he rolled around in the snow and ate as much as he could. We had a blast slipping and sliding on the snowy trails. The route took me an hour longer than it normally does, but I could have cared less. I had so much fun on the trails that day, partly because I didn't have a goal in mind and partly because of the simple joy of watching how excited Cedar was. 
snow!


 It has been nice to just run for the sake of running. 
rolling in the snow

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