There are some really awesome stories about Austria, Czech and Switzerland that I really need + want to share but let’s take a quick second to bounce back to one of the main topics of this blog — running. As you may have picked up from my most recent “currently” post I’ve signed myself up for a marathon. A road marathon. The Pittsburgh Marathon, to be exact. #GameOnPGh! I’m excited about it…and hating myself for it. Today marks Day One of my official unofficial scribble of a training plan. Instead of hopping out of bed when I woke to the sunrise at 6am I stuck headphones in and watched John Oliver between dozy naps for two hours.

This is unlike me. Well, avoiding a training run isn’t exactly unusual, but that half sleep dozing after I’ve woken up is not normal for me. It annoys me. But I still did it. Not because I didn’t want to run…but because I didn’t know where to run.

...hello world! This is what nearly every morning looks like from my bed, no complaints here!

You see, I’m living in Silverthorne for the winter and while I know the mountain trails quite well I don’t know a damn thing about the roads and bike paths, especially in the winter. Rather than let myself get excited about heading out for a run surrounded by beautifully snow covered mountains I freaked out. Where do I go? Will the path be plowed? I don’t want to drive! What if I can’t get my miles in? What if I get lost and am late for work? What if… But… Why… How…

All the uncertainty of the unknown. Yes, it’s exciting to go exploring but right this second [well, for two full hours this morning] the crushing doubt kept me away from that exploring. Seriously, I had plenty of time to explore! I was awake at 6am…I didn’t need to be to work until 10am. Three miles of exploring could have easily happened. Easily. But it didn’t. Because I let my what if’s psych out my let’s do this’s.

…the playground where all my cross training will happen. Trust me, a few hours in the trees yesterday were solid proof this counts as cross training!

So, yes, I’m a little frustrated with myself! Luckily this is only the first day of training and I know myself well enough to know I’ll pull off a solid do-over tomorrow. I’ve put the internet to use [thank goodness for local FB groups!] and have some route suggestions waiting to be explored. And after a week of scoping out routes and save-to-run-on-roads I’ll be battling the same pile of uncertainty for my first run-mute to the new job. And then…well, I’ll survive that too, even if I psych myself out a time or two.

How do you get yourself out the door when you’re running in a new area? Where do you find routes? Do you just randomly explore or do you start with a game plan?

Also, has anyone ever cut their gums? Like, back where your wisdom teeth used to live? I did…and I have no idea how. It’s not exceptionally painful, just really weird!


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