Piney Flats...not very flat.

I realize it has been a few days since I've written, but fear not my friends, I have not left. I normally write before work, but for the past several days, the hustle and bustle of work have slid into my normal blog time, besides, I have two runs under my belt since my last post.

Monday I ventured out another run by myself. I wanted to get at least 40 minutes of runtime in, regardless of the distance of that 40 minutes, so I set out on run around the great city of Bristol, Tennessee. I started a block away from my office and found a nice loop that I can one day add to. It was much easier to find my stride and pace on Monday. I think I'm really getting the hang of this running thing. When I started, I felt like I had run for hours ten minutes in, but now, after ten minutes, I feel like I've just warmed up. That's a pretty good feeling considering I don't like running all that much.

I managed to only get about 35 minutes of running in on Monday. When I finished, I was curious as to how far I had run, so when I got back to my car I decided to re-trace my route. Turns out, in my 35 minute run I had managed to cover four miles. Not too bad and right at my usual pace for a 5k. It was nice knowing that I kept that pace for an extra mile.

Yesterday, Chris and I met up at Piney Flats Bike Shop for a run. We started from there because I had to pick up a part for my ailing bike. After some route discussion with Eric Davis, one of the shop employees (I use the word employee loosely here), pointed us in the direction of a route that was right at five miles with a few hills. So Chris and I tied our shoes tight, started our timers and headed out on our newfound route.

Eric wasn't kidding, the route had several hills. A couple of them were very gradual and the rest were like climbing stairs. It was a tough run. We managed to run five very hilly miles in 47 minutes. A time I don't consider too bad considering the terrain.

I can say that since I've started running, I haven't run the same route twice. Not sure how that has happened, but it has and believe me, it wasn't intentional. Maybe that's why it's becoming so easy to get started...new scenery. When I'm on the bike, whether it's the mountain bike or the road bike, I rarely find myself in unfamiliar territory. But after yesterday's run in Piney Flats, I will go back to run that route again. It was challenging, but fun.