Breakthrough?

There is a great disturbance in the Force: I've had four good runs in a row.

By "good runs", of course, I don't mean that anyone would mistake me for Paavo Nurmi, or even Cleavon Little. But nobody has offered to call the paramedics, get me a wheelchair, or refer me to Dr. Kevorkian. This is a dramatic improvement over what had been the norm. I'm not quite a real runner yet, but I'm beginning to believe that I'm no longer Walter Brennan.

Several things have made these recent runs interesting. The most notable was the presence of signs in Waterton Canyon on Saturday announcing the proximity of bears. As is my preference, I started my run fairly early; well ahead of the arrival of the high-school kids, mountain bikers, and families out for a stroll. I might have been the very first person to head up into the canyon.

I was carrying a tube of pepper spray -- but the label only claims that it's effective on Chihuahuas, petite housewives, and certain species of nonmigratory waterfowl...there's no mention of the ability to stop a grizzly attack. Regardless, I ventured forth, figuring that a) my obvious macho manliness and confident running stride would encourage the wildlife to remain in the bushes until I had safely passed, and b) since there are no berries on the road itself, the bears were far more likely to be somewhere else. The sighting that sparked the posting of the warning placard was probably just a case of the bear crossing the road to get to the other side. It's not like they habitually lurk behind a rock, just waiting for an unsuspecting jogger to eat. Is it?

In any case, I decided to take my chances and proceeded up the road. I paid much more attention to the periphery than I normally do, but saw no signs of large predators of any kind. I turned around at the 4.5-mile outhouse and ended up negative splitting the run by a significant margin. It felt really good going downhill with the wind at my back.

Other people were now making their way up the canyon, and a couple of Water Department vehicles went by...so at that point I figured that any bears in the area would be reluctant to appear. And so it was.

After the run, I rode my mountain bike back up to the top of the canyon, once again looking for wayward bruins. By then, the bighorn sheep were out on the road (doing the usual sheep stuff), but I ignored them. It was a decent ride, even though my legs were tired.

The other running workouts in this streak are not particularly noteworthy. They just went better than I would've expected. I was surprised by the speed I had at Tuesday night's track practice, and remain delightfully optimistic about having some good training runs this weekend, as well. I'm hoping to sneak in some saddle time, too. Things are going well.

In future posts, I'll share my thoughts about whether an improvement in training run smoothness has any noticeable impact on my tennis game, swimming performance, or mental sharpness. Until then, enjoy this wonderful weather, and have a great day!