Peaceful, easy feeling (and I did it!)

Woke up happy today, for no particular reason except the sun was shining and as soon as I opened my eyes I could see the mountains. Ate some oatmeal and took the dog for a walk through the forest trail that leads up to Mt. Marathon base.

Love how peaceful and quiet it is, and just minutes from our house.

Here's the frozen stream where I fell on my ass (note the blurry head of my dog, The Beebs):

The good news is that my novel rewrite is almost finished. I swear! This has been one of the hardest things I've ever done. Writing it was no picnic but rewriting has been a small (though I must admit sometimes glorious) agony.

And the other good news is: I did it! I met my goal of running 1,000 miles this year. Yipppeee! I'm currently at 1,015.3 miles.

Have been running my long runs and intervals on the treadmill at the gym. With the short daylight hours and my work and writing schedule, this is unavoidable. I run the trails on the weekends and roads once a week, but the other days I run for miles inside and stay in the same place, sigh, sigh.

Still, there's something about running longer distance that snags me. As soon as I hit the six or seven mile mark, I feel, well, I can't really explain how I feel. It's not a runner's high but more that I'm in The Zone, and I love it there, love how my mind slows down and the clutter empties out and there's just me and the movement of my body, and my breath. It's a type of meditation, a purity missing from the rest of my life.

Reading: Still reading Alix Kate Shulman plus picked up a couple of books from Cover to Cover bookstore including one by Ana Castillo that I CAN'T wait to read.

Running: 12 miles on treadmill tonight, averaged 9:35 pace with 1/4 mile at 4% grade every mile, just to spice things up.