A Fantasy of Another Kind

After a zip quick trip to take care of family issues on the weekend, I have settled right back into my training plan and knocked off a cold and surprisingly speedy 10 miles today.  Since I am terrible at knowing my pace yet pretty good about listening to my body, it amazes me to complete a run faster than I thought I was going! The long runs are stacking up and back to back runs are more common, but I feel stronger and much less sore than a few months ago.  While I run with a garmin, I try not to look at it too often.  Instead, I can gauge my progress week to week by seeing how my times drop doing similar runs.  Its cool!
Umstead is never far from my mind, however.  This really came to light driving the 13+ hours on the weekend.    As I looked out at the woods on the side of the road, I scoured the landscape for a trail.  I wondered how it would feel to run there?  Does anyone run there?  How long would it take to get to the top of that mountain? How could I get across that creek?  Would the rocks be slippery?  Where does the snow start?  How deep is it closer to the top?  On and on, my mind whirled with running thoughts.  I actually longed to be out of the car and gloriously running to the top of the mountain to see what the road looked like from up there.  It was probably a good thing we didn't run into any traffic, because with my running shoes always at the ready in the back seat , I might not have stayed buckled in.