Running for Desserts: First Outdoor Run of 2014!!!!

Yesterday, it was a blamy 30 something degrees and get this SUNNY! What? What is that bright fire-y ball just hanging out in the sky? Kidding, but as a summer baby I am having serious warm weather withdrawals. I am missing the hot summer weather and the beautiful sun. It was so great to have the sun out yesterday. Naturally to take full advantage of the beautiful weather, I took a nap! Oops. hahah But after my very nice little nap full of very strange dreams, I've been having a lot of really weird and VIVID dreams, I went for a run, outside.

Glorious.

I love the website mapmyrun.com. It lets you log a run, street by street and has a lot of helpful tools when planning. It's kind of funny but whenever I plan a run I really to make the routes as simple as I can. Thus, a lot of my runs are out a back runs, simply running out one way, turning around and running the same route back. This might sound boring but it allows me to somewhat zone out on my run. Running is one why I deal with stress or if I have something on my mind I'll go for a long run to clear my head. The more I can think distract my brain from my actual run the better I feel after a run. You would think using this logic I would be able to zone out on a treadmill like nobody's business. Unfortunately it's the exact opposite, it's really hard for me to clear my head when I am on a treadmill run.

Either way, my outdoor run yesterday was the first outdoor run of 2014! Whoo hoo! The first few miles of my run it was really sunny and warm. I intentionally planned to run on more side roads than busy roads so I wouldn't have to fight with cars to have the clear parts of the road. I only had to run on the sidewalk once thankfully because it was unshoveled and had about 4 inches of snow with some foot prints making it killer on my calves. The second half of my run was COLD! The sun disappeared behind the clouds and I was running into the wind. Not to mention the I was warm from the first half of the run and a little sweaty. I always say that cold runs are my fastest runs, because I absolutely hate being cold so I just want to get done and warm faster.

I am happy that I was able to sneak this outdoor run in before we get hit with another really cold spell again. So GROSS!

Such a great run! I love when the trees are covered in snow. It all looks so clean and peaceful.

My FAVORITE and depressingly discontinued running shoes. Asics GT 2170. I have an online order put in for two more pairs of them. Trying to stock up before they're all gone and I have to find a new go-to running shoe.