Doubling Up

AM: 67 mins
9+ miles
PM: 31 mins
4 miles

I met Jeff at the river at 7am for our newly established Wednesday trail run. Actually, I arrived a few minutes early, so I jogged 10 minutes while I waited for him to arrive. Once he got there, we set off along the dirt path for a few miles before heading up into the trails. Maybe it's because this is still a novelty to me, but for the second week in a row I was amazed at how quickly the time passed while we navigated the trails. I didn't look at my watch once (as compared to about 20 times on an average run), and spent most of my time alternating my energy between attempting to carry on a conversation and watching the feet in front of me to make sure I didn't take a tumble. We kept the pace fairly uptempo the entire time, and I definitely enjoyed the challenge.

For my evening run I was prepared to follow my usual out-and-back along the trail on Ponce, but at the last minute decided to weave through the Virginia-Highland neighborhoods instead. I ran down St. Charles, crossed Highland and continued down St. Charles as though I was headed to the park, but instead just meandered through the residential streets for a while. I absolutely adore the neighborhoods in this area, with their charming houses and lush foliage, and runs like this make me happy to be a Highlands resident. I finished up on St. Charles and then down Briarcliff to home.