Fall Running in the Country

Help - I need a Fall and Winter Running Goal!

Country living, and running, in the Fall.  I declare this to be the finest time of year...the finest place to run...and have come to understand and appreciate that Fall is really a season of transition for not only trees, flowers, birds and daylight hours - it represents a major change in our options for "play".  

After spending the past two summers balancing running with other priorities, I've hit a wall after the marathons.  True, my body needs some time to recuperate, but I think I'm there - almost a month now with very little running. 

Without question, I've become as restless as the dangling maple leaf, trying to delay its inevitable fall by clinging tightly to a vine who is ready to call it a year.  The vine and its tree are ready for a nap.

Me? No napping....Not this year. I am definitely goal-oriented when it comes to running.  Give me a goal - a trail race, a marathon, something organized and I'm all over it.  Leave me to just schedule weekly runs for the pure joy of running and I begin to flounder, "ho-humming" and initiate a mental adjustment to the likes of a grizzly bear preparing for the slow crawl into his cozy den for the winter.   In my den there are two warm fire places (one is natural gas...), evening Duck, Trail Blazer and Monopoly games with J and the girls.  A terrific place to be.  However, there's still time to trek many miles before the end of the year.

The past two weeks of out-of-town job training left me with very little running (only a 5 miler around Bear Creek) and a whole lot of high calorie cafeteria food which included rather delightful double chocolate chip cookies with caramel glaze (aided in digestion by a chaser glass of chocolate milk).  However, I was fortunate to have a 4 hour class on health and fitness.  The class reinforced what I already knew about running and aerobic exercise - it's really, really good for you.  You know the benefits - most all relate to increased quality of life. I'm more determined now to find a goal for the Fall and Winter season.   Last year, I tried to maintain some weekly runs - but with tomorrow night's "fall back" time adjustment, I'll be leaving and returning home from work in darkness.

When I lived in the city, running at night was something to look forward to.  Street lights, people (Journey!  Could Steve Perry have been a runner?) made evening runs through the city interesting and preoccupied my thoughts, making the runs seemingly go by quickly.  

A Harvest Moon to light Bear Creek's trails.

Nighttime running in the country is a bit scary with the only sources of light, aside from a runner or cyclist's headlamp, is from the occasionally passing car or truck's headlight high beams or those lights emitted from houses separated by many acres of now dormant raspberry, black berry and apple orchards.  Granted, as day begins to break, the fog and cool temperatures bring a renewed sense of play and running in perhaps the world's finest setting - the country.