Loon Lake

I tried calling Greg T. last night to see if he would be interested in joining me for a run, but I didn't get an answer after a couple of attempts, and thus, was on my own. I headed out the door and was greeted by a beautiful morning. I drove the 20 min. to Loon Lake (Inland lake) to run around its perimeter trail totaling about 13K. It was a perfect running morning and the trail was shaded by the canopy of trees, so it never really got too hot. In fact, the trail was still cool enough that it was peppered with slugs all the way around it. This provided a mini obstacle course, because the vision of having one of those landing on the bottom of my shoe was more than I was willing to accept. Despite it being a weekend in July, I was surprised that during my entire run I saw only one walker the whole time. It wasn't like I started out early, as it was probably about 9:00 when I hit the trail. There were campers at the campsite, and I did see them by the time I made it around and came out of the trail, but there certainly wasn't a lot of activity considering how gorgeous it was. And yes, I did hear a Loon's call on the East side of the lake. This certainly added to the stillness.

I finished the Loon Lake Loop in 1:01' and ran an additional bit of the trail for a total running time of 1:30'. I was running ~4:45K's, so it ended up being a total of about 18K-19K. My legs and foot felt good, especially after they were warmed up 20' into the run. I felt like I was flagging a bit in the last couple of K, but I'm sure that is predominantly a mental thing rather than too much of a physical barrier. I haven't run far in my long runs in the last year and need to build them leading up to October. I am going to slowly increase my Sunday run over the next couple of months, paying heed to my foot as it did feel a bit tender an hour after the run.

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Here's an interesting article about the number of mid-pack runners that are adopting the idea of getting a coach, whether it be online guidance or the flesh and blood variety. Click here.