6:30 am. Absolutely awesome run this morning, set out to run the same trail I did yesterday but I wanted to go the whole 6 miles to the end and I wanted it to be light. So I waited in my hotel room until 6:15 and drove to the trail head, sat in the warm car for about 5 minutes and noticed there where quite a few people already walking the trail so even though it was still pretty dark I set off without my head lamp. It was light enough to make out the outline of the trail and within 20 minutes it was plenty light. Very nice cool morning here in Northern California, my kind of running weather, planned on just taking a nice easy 12 miler the whole run today, got to mile 5 where I turned around yesterday and took some pictures of the lake with the sun coming up and fog hovering over the trees. It was really neat. From mile 5 to 6 it was a very steep uphill out of the valley so I just tried to keep a nice even pace going up. Got to the end of the trail mile 6 in about 43 minutes, took a potty and water break and turned around, coming back down the hill was very fast, without even thinking about it I hit mile 1, or 7 which ever way you look at it in 5:30. Decided then that since my legs where moving I would do a 6 mile tempo run back to the car. Everything felt great, lungs felt good, legs felt good and I was just enjoying every moment. There where starting to be tons of people on the trail, which made it easier to keep my pace up to try and pass people. At mile 9 a bike casually past me so I started pacing off of him. I hit mile 5 of my Tempo in exactly 30 minutes, right where I wanted to be, then my wife called and told me the elders quarum was looking for me to play football this morning. That slowed me down a bit, but I had my headphones in already and didn't have to stop to answer the phone. Ended my 6 mile tempo in 36:48. 6:07 avg pace, Very happy with that, total run was around 1:20:00. Excellent morning, now off to work. Pretty busy the rest of the trip so I doubt I will make it back to that trail this trip. Hotel treadmill from here on out :(
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