Running in the West

Well, now that Memorial Day weekend has passed, we have entered into the summer season. No, not the official start to summer which doesn't happen until June 21, but the start of the time of year when we have bonfires in the backyard, go to baseball games (OUTSIDE!), and go fishing in one of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. I for one could not be happier. Memorial day weekend included visiting family, gambling in Deadwood (Erich won $50 in blackjack, I lost 29 cents in slot machines) and eating good food, all wrapped up with a couple of good runs. 

Erich and I drove to Sioux Falls on Thursday night and stayed with my sister and her husband. I got up early on Friday morning to go for a quick 3-mile run since I didn't get one in on Thursday as my schedule said I should. That day we drove west to my Grandparent's 3,000 acre cattle ranch in western South Dakota. It looks like this:

It's quite gorgeous at the ranch and even better when the sun is shining. Unfortunately it's been raining a lot there lately. About 6 inches in the last 20 days. That's much more than the area is used to. 

On Saturday morning I went for a run among all of this beauty. Unfortunately, part of what makes this ranch so lovely is it's natural hills and the large canyon that runs through it. I knew I needed to get in a 6 mile run and heard my grandparents' mailbox is about 1.5 miles from their house. I figured out and back twice would be sufficient. Well, it turns out that the mail box is only 1.25 miles from the house so out and back twice only makes up 5 miles. I thought I'd feel badly about skimping on the miles until I started running these hills:

Yep, it was intense. Since I went out and back twice and there are two big hills along the route to the mailbox, I had to go up four of these bad boys. Erich went with me as well and he runs a lot faster than me so I probably held him back but all in all it was a good run. The best part was the gravel. It's so soft and nice on the joints. No pain whatsoever. And on top of it, it was actually sunny. don't let the pictures fool you. We actually had good weather for the run. 

Luckily for me Sunday is supposed to be a cross training day. My cross training didn't really happen unless you count my elevated heart rate when we had to drive up and down hills steeper than those above, while it was raining, with gravel that had turned to mud as slippery as ice. We fishtailed a lot and may have been going sideways on the road a couple of times. All this in a 4 wheel drive Jeep. We made it back in and out of the ranch safely and headed home Monday morning. While traveling, we made a quick stop in Chamberlain, on the banks of the Missouri River. 

Look at that view! It might be a little different in a couple of days because they're expecting some pretty brutal flooding. But for now it looks like this.

Oh so pretty!

Just be careful of the rattlesnakes!

All in all, it was a very good trip and I had a great couple of runs. It's always fun to run in new places. I should think about that for the future.

Today I dropped back down to 3 miles. 3 is so easy now! Nothing too big to report. My joints were a little less sore so that was nice. I was also significantly faster. Can't wait for 7 on Saturday. Hip hip! 

Happy Memorial Day! Welcome summer!