Here there be dragons...

"I'm telling you stories. Trust me." - Winterson

Making all the mistakes so you don't have to ;-P

I managed two days in a row ;)  Gold star to me!  Perfect weather probably helped that.   Decided I wasn't up to hills again, so went in search of the rail trail entrance I'd found when I was on my bike.  Failed horribly at finding that, but did end up on top of the escarpment and there was a great running trail there, so parked on the side of the road and decided that would work.   Right where I was starting there was a steep flight of stairs that I was curious about, but I couldn't see where they went and, well, I was already standing on a flat trail.  So I followed my trail for a bit and then it changed and went very steeply downhill.  Argh.  All I could think was about the run back *up* the trail.   The base of that trail connected to a rail trail though!  Win!  Not at all the one I was aiming for, but same basic concept of wide, flat, occupied by friendly athletic people.  So figured I'd run that to the half way point then go back and deal with the hill.  But at about the 3 km mark, I found myself at the base of what I assumed were the same stairs.  Sweet!  Instead of turning around, I'd keep running another 1.5km along the trail, turn around and run back, then climbing the stairs could be cool down.  So that was all good.  Trail was fairly gorgeous, which was nice.  The problem came when we got to the stairs and Sasha didn't want to step on them :(  Oops.  She gave it a solid go and climbed with me -- it turned out there were a lot more flights than I could see from the bottom and she was super tired, not to mention *really* didn't like the metal see-through footing.  I felt more than moderately guilty about that one :(   We did eventually make it to the top and there was a doggy water fountain there though, so that was good :)   AND although I felt snail-slow, my avg time was actually slightly faster than yesterday.  Win.

Newbie Running Lessons Learned so far:

- Do not carry your phone in a belt at the small of your back.  It will seem like an ingenious idea, and be almost unnoticed during the run.  But the extreme tenderness resulting from the constant pounding is so very not worth it.   Somehow when I consider running, I've never expected my lower back to be the sorest part ;-P

- When your running buddy is a canine, consider the terrain from their point of view.  I'm used to planning a route with horses in mind, and even for my bike I make definite concessions, but this is the first time Sasha has needed an alternate route.  Puppy owner fail :(

- Puppy water fountains are an awesome invention.   This was actually the best one I've seen yet in that the water flowed into an attached basin as opposed to just a low tap to the ground.  Very civilized.

- Shorts that are fitted enough to not rub are critical.  Just trust me on that one.

- Average time lost by running hills is greater than average time lost to exhaustion.  As in, I was faster today than yesterday, but I'm putting that down to the fact that the route was downhill or flat.  Win.

- If you drive to your run, a towel or something to sit on on the drive home might be a civilized idea.  As would a large bottle of water.

- After the run, do not sit down for any length of time.  Ugh.  I swear my legs turned into bricks on the way home and *screamed* when I tried to reanimate them to get out of the car.   I did stretch, I swear.  But apparently did not cool out quite enough to dissipate the lactic acid.  Fail.  Sasha, otoh, seems smarter than I, for though she too was clearly tired, she's been wandering around the house and the yard since we got back with only short breaks ;)

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