I needed that

Skye is on point and ready to rumble.

There are days when running or cycling can be just what you need to clear your mind of the craziness of work or just life in general. Today was one of those days for me. Even though I had just done the Country Road Ride this past weekend and had gotten only one rest day I needed to go out and run long to clear my head of work related bull pucky. As always, Skye was up for it and went crazy as I started gathering my gear for the run. It amazes me that she can tell the difference between running gear and cycling gear. 

I love the view down the trail

I needed a recovery day after this weekend so I donned the heart rate monitor and headed out the door to the trail head at the gate on the Cunard Road. It's about the only flat place I can run in the area so it's my usual choice for a recovery run. The added plus to that is running along the New River. The New River Gorge is beautiful any time of the year and the sounds of the rapids as I run along seem to help speed me down the trail. But mostly it's flat, flat, flat. Gotta love that when you live in West Virginia. Did I mention how flat it is?

When I run I always try for easy, light, smooth, and fast in the words of Caballo Blanco. Normally, I take a while to warm up and get into a comfortable stride. Today I dropped into easy, light, and smooth right from the start. Fast wasn't going to get to join the party since it was a recovery day. I could tell early on it was going to be one of those great days of running that you are blessed with out of the blue. An old friend used to call that feeling blending. It was related to the sport of extreme kayaking originally but the concept flows into any other sport perfectly. Blending is becoming one with whatever you are doing at the time and flowing along like water over rocks in a mountain stream. It's a very Zen thing, a one mind kind of thing. When you realize you're blending you aren't anymore. Skye and I were in perfect unison and flowing down the trail like a light breeze across the ground. I had a vague thought of really going for a long run but did have to eventually go to work today so I could only run six miles.

That kind of run was exactly what I needed and wanted out of the day. After about 2/3's of the run my head had cleared itself of all the work related crap and I realized that there are many other great things in life than the crap I was currently dealing with. The smile that was on my face from the sheer joy of running was replaced with an even bigger smile as I came the conclusion that things were pretty awesome overall. To quote Craig Morgan, “This ole boy's got it goin' on.”

I also wore my new Salomon Mission XRs for the first time. I'll get a review up in a few days. Just as a teaser, they felt awesome.

The new kicks, Salomon Mission XR

How often do you use your run to clear your head of the daily grind?

Have you ever had a blending experience?