open spaces!

the whole plan for today was to go on the mountain and run. but then we had a horse emergency on saturday night and I felt like we needed to be in service for the better part of sunday, so we stayed in town.

I still managed to talk hubby into going out in the country and letting me run. plus we were able to take all 3 dogs and they weren’t restricted to leashes.

I also managed to get some serious hill training.

we went out to a county road where we usually ride the horses so we knew the road fairly well.

it was later in the day because I was at the shoe store this morning still working trail run stuff. we headed out to run about 1130.

I had 6 miles on my training plan for today, but I had felt like I wanted to do 8.

as I started out on my run I knew that I was going to be slower than normal because of the heat and the hills I was greeted with.

the pictures don’t totally do the hills justice. they weren’t terribly long, just seriously steep. I think I actually hated going back down the hills then going up. going down is so much harder on my hips and knees. but there is only one way I’ll get better….practice! I am already thinking about going out and doing my 4 mile training run on thursday morning on a different road we checked out on our way back into town.

there was some gorgeous views of the mountain and the rangeland. I will never get sick of seeing the bighorns!

the dogs did great. and jagger even actually did better than I ever expected him to.

chocolate dog lead the pack the whole way. and twogs definitely was exhausted by the time we were getting close to being done.

there were some irrigation ditches with water where the dogs were able to get a drink and cool off.

I felt great the whole time. even though my miles were slower I was happy with how I felt. I even felt great getting back to the truck and I can’t wait until I’m in the 15+ mile range for my sunday runs. I ended up hitting just over 7.5 miles for the day.

when we got back home 2 of the 3 dogs were passed out.

and then there was the crazy dog….

she just wanted to play fetch. apparently the 7.5 wasn’t enough for her and that’s why she was holding back at the end of the run.

hubby is currently napping and I am thinking as soon as I hit “publish” I will be curling up on the couch and watch the rockies game through my eyelids.