12.6 miles with the hubs!

This afternoon I finally had a chance to run with my husband again!   Due to his work schedule and his IT band trouble, it's been a couple of weeks since we've done a long run together.  We did the 12.6 mile loop, and since we didn't leave the house until after 11am, it was (kind of) warm, but definitely sunny and beautiful.  Every time I'm out there, but especially on a day like today, I feel so grateful to live in such a lovely place.

We took our run pretty easy today.  It's exactly three weeks until the marathon, so theoretically we're on our taper period.  Chris is trying to minimize the stress and strain on his knee, and on Monday I'm going to be running a 20 miler with a friend, so I kind of wanted to save my legs for that, as well.  We used the interval timer to do a 3:1 run/walk/run ratio.  I think we both felt pretty good for most of the run, although we ran out of water and Chris gets really thirsty when it's warm out, so he was suffering a bit at the end.  My hamstrings were pulling for some reason, but it wasn't too bad and I'm hoping having a rest day tomorrow will be enough for me to feel ready for 20 on Monday.

The funny thing about today's run was that right before we left the house, Chris went and grabbed our little camera and stuck it in his pocket.  He already keeps his pockets full when he runs, with his phone, his bulky can of pepper spray, tissue to wipe his nose, whatever.  Apparently he was in the mood to take some pictures and enjoy our time together out in the gorgeous landscape because normally it's me pulling out the camera, begging him to let me take photos or asking him to take photos of me.  And normally he'll do so, but only with a lot of grunting and groaning.

See what I mean?  Who wouldn't want to run down that road?

 Okay, getting a little warmer, top layer comes off. ;)

 We got some snow in the mountains last night.  Glad it didn't make it's way too far down!

Lots of hills on our route, for sure.  Makes me even more excited for Ogden...that course is almost all downhill, with the exception of one medium hill and a few tiny ups and downs.

Question:  What is your favorite thing about running, exercising or working out in some way outdoors?

For me, besides the landscape, it's the smells and the feeling of the fresh country air.  Sometimes it gets a little "farmy", but most of the time it's just cool, sweet, grassy smells.  Today it even smelled a lot like freshly mowed grass and wildflowers.  I love it.