Tri'ing for Balance: Fall in the Air

Sunday funday! Today I headed out for my last double digit run before Chesman. In case you aren’t counting, it’s 13 days away. Yep, 13. GAH!!
Today’s goal was to keep it easy and run comfortably. I mapped out a new route and thought about ditching my watch, but at the end, realized that I am way too neurotic accountable for my pace to ditch it, so it came along for the ride.
Felt pretty good heading out, then 10 minutes into the run…disaster. My mp3 player froze. Crap. I am not one of those blessed athletes that can tune out during a run and embrace nature….I like music. It makes me happy. (During a race, it’s completely different, of course). I fiddled with it, then after a few minutes, gave up and resigned myself to the long run with no tunage.

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The most amazing thing happened then. I enjoyed it. I saw things that I usually don’t notice on my run. Like how crisp the air was. And the fact that the leaves on some of the trees were turning (which doesn’t really scream tri training to me, but whatever). The fact that I have some pretty amusing, but hopeless neighbors. (Yup, wonder how long that buddy’s gonna stay on their lawn). The sound of the kids playing in the jump house by the farm near us. The maize maze. The number of cows by the pasture where I run. (Listen, I live in the boonies, what do you want?) Needless to say, by the time the run was over, I realized that I didn’t even miss the music. And while I will always prefer it, I had a great run relying on my other senses and came back to the house a much happier and calmer person. 10.03 miles in 1:29:07, check.
And, of course, when I entered into the house, I saw more signs of fall in my midst…