Fit Fun Mom

Today I did something I haven’t done in a long time. I ran naked, without my GPS watch to keep pace or an audiobook to entertain me. (How much do I love Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell on Blackstone Audiobooks? THIS MUCH. So awesome. Twenty-five hours of awesome. I’m on hour 22.5. But I resisted clipping on my iPod Shuffle and I headed out earbud-free.) I listened to my body and to the birds chattering around me. I smelled the lilacs and the orange blossoms. I only took my phone out to take this photo of the bougainvillea that are a gorgeous riot of color right now in Southern California:

I defy anyone to spell “fuchsia bougainvillea” correctly without the help of this post or Google.

I ran a 10K loop from my house and enjoyed every slow-but-steady minute of it. It’s hilly where I live and I consider the hill work (456 ft. gain over three major hills) good training. It’s nice to shake things up and substitute a little uphill and downhill running for the treadmill and the gentle elevation changes on my usual routes. It wasn’t speedy and it was a little clunky (see: left groin strain) but I covered the miles and made it home in time to have a PB&H sandwich on whole wheat and get in a shower before I had to make it to preschool pick-up. I’d call that darn successful.