A wonderful Sunday!

As you guys know, Sunday are traditionally my “long run” days.  But right now, it’s hard to see that as anything but the distant past. 

After pushing myself yesterday, I had a hard time sleeping as I kept waking up in true pain.  So when I got up this morning, despite fantastic running weather, I knew it wasn’t going to happen.

Normally, this would result in a meltdown.  But remember, we’re dealing with The New and Improved Jen!  Shockingly, 7 days in, she still mostly has the reins.

So instead of freaking out, I decided to take a run on the elliptical.  This is such a weird injury, because even laying down is extremely painful, but the elliptical didn’t hurt at all. 

After lunch we decided to go hiking, not wanting to waste this stunning day.  We had hit this set of trails only once before with a photography club outing, but there were more trails to explore.

We had a magnificent time.  We didn’t see one other person on the 3 trails that we hit, and the dogs had a grand time running, chasing, smelling.

One trail was easy and one was very difficult.  I enjoyed the challenge.  In a first for me, we had to use ropes with knots in them to climb the steep incline – Archer scampered up and Chakotay made it after a couple of slips.

We had an almost  too close encounter with a porcupine – fortunately Marc was leading the pack, because my dumb ass would have probably stepped on him and if the dogs had been leading it could have been BAD.  But a couple of stones thrown his way convinced him to move along and stop blocking our path on the narrow and steep trail we were on.

I found myself completely at peace in the woods.  I think I like this new and improved Jen!  I hope she sticks around for a while!