Summer running.

Level terrain on the way back east, taken by Claudia on her walk.

Though my posts here don't reflect it, my roster documents the 3x week schedule I've maintained steadfastly.

The running has not been easy. Each time out it has felt like a real effort, sluggish, even painful. Here I am now eight weeks post Half Marathon effort, and still in recovery. I've been shocked, to put it mildly.

Nevertheless, I've been out there, the last three weeks posting 22, 24 and 25 miles.

Some challenging runs I attribute to the heat, which I've yet to totally adjust to. Others to poor hydration, which in at least one instance was undoubted. With major developments in other parts of my life I find myself with some middle-of-the-night sleeplessness, unquestionably interfering in my energy management. And I've yet to resolve the nutritional challenges of balancing carbohydrate needs for running and carbohydrate poisoning with diabetes. Every week, every run is an experiment.

Finally and as well, I've developed arthritis in the joint of the big toe on my right foot, antagonized significantly by hill work stretching the toe up and back.

So even though I've watched the details carefully and can attribute difficulties in running with a variety of plausible causes, the sum total is that they've been on the deciding side since the Half Marathon, and seldom prior.

It's been enough that I've found myself wondering about the decision to move to marathon distance. I wonder if this 65-year-old body is really up to the challenge.

I'm watching it carefully.

In the meantime, this weekend's long run was on a new section of the Switzerland Trail of America, a stretch I've never covered, from Gold Hill Station to Puzzler. My intention was to do 10 miles. I wound up with nine.

I should have looked at a map before running. Could even have used one along the way, exploring as I was. At the junction with the road I ran out of ROW, and totally missed the fact that the ROW actually ended there--I thought it was simply a rockfall that was blocking my way. So I went searching for the ROW in the totally wrong place, downhill, missing it completely.

That was only the first of three significant navigation errors. The next two took me off into wild bushwhacking expeditions in densely overgrown forest, with massively steep terrain changes. All in the barest of running clothes and the lightest of shoes. Not ideal. I kept regretting taking off without my camera--would love to have documented it.

As fun and interesting as it was, it wasn't an effective use of energy on a long run.

Though the entire four+ miles out was essentially level terrain, I did some stumbling on the rocky path in my return, letting me know I was more fatigued than I'd realized. So I surrendered to a lesser goal as I arrived at my parked truck at Gold Hill Rd.

I'll return, better prepared and more knowledgeable, ready to continue the Switzerland Trail ROW up and around Puzzler, on to Bloomerville and the Big Five Junction, perhaps as far as Francis. I'd love to see the places, and would love to do the distances.