I feel like a monster brat if I even begin to complain about the monotony of Summit Avenue and the River Road, two roads I believe would be competitive with any other urban path in the country for most beautiful urban street. But by the end of every marathon training cycle, I begin to dread miles on the River Road. A major part of my goals with the club, therefore, was to mix up my training routes--and that really worked. I loved exploring the network of lakes and trails in Minneapolis.
And those routes are beautiful, too. We run in places where there are dozens of other runners, walkers, dogs, cyclists, rollerbladers, and families out being active and enjoying the city together. (The latter is unsurprisingly a soft spot in my heart.) Most evenings, I wished I had a tiny camera to bring along on every run. But it was also the time of day and year when the sun was so high that the lighting was poor and wouldn't have showed a sliver of how pretty a scene was. Well! Now that the days are getting shorter and the sun is setting earlier, I figured it was a perfect afternoon for my camera to accompany me on my warm-up.
Ever the optimist!
This pile of canoes and kayaks is right at the start and end of most of our club's runs. Sometimes at the end of a long run, I think about wrangling a kayak away from its lock, paddling fast into the water and jumping in to cool off.
This is the dock overlooking Lake of the Isles.
If you look closely at this photo, you'll see the geese flying low overhead. I thought this was sort of a neat shot, until two of their friends who were lagging behind decided to fly even lower and thus closer to my head. I worry that I did not keep my cool.
From most vantage points on the lakes, you can see at least part of the Minneapolis skyline. Cool!
I had time to scoot over to Lake Calhoun, which is connected to Lake of the Isles by Dean Parkway. There were sailboats out all over the lake being propelled by a very cool breeze. I personally would've needed sweaters to be out on the lake today, but I liked the view from the path.
And these big trees were lining the route back to Lake of the Isles. Is it any wonder that Forbes just named Minneapolis the healthiest city in the United States, given this accessible urban trail network? Nope.
When I finished my warmup, the sun was even lower. Most readers have figured out by now my penchant for taking photos directly into the sun. I don't know why I love this so much! I know it looks bad! But to me, I guess it looks beautiful. I also like the willow trees that droop to the trail's left.
But, oh, Reader, I really wish I would've had a camera for the rest of the run. The runners in training for Twin Cities Marathon are tapering now and went off on a different route, so I was part of a smaller group doing Yassos on the Kenilworth Trail. Yassos, in short, are a workout that involves 10 800-meter (half-mile) repeats done in the time you're aiming for in the marathon. For example, if you want to finish a marathon in three hours and 50 minutes, each of your Yassos should be done in 3:50. (They are named, by the way, after Runners World's Bart Yasso.) I've never done the full set of 10 before, and ooh, it's a good workout.
Well, that wasn't the part that I wanted to capture for you. For the last few intervals, the sun was sinking lower and lower in the sky, which was cast in this rosy pink light. It was the first run of the training cycle that I had finished after the sun officially set. The trail winds through the woods, and it smelled undeniably like fall. Because I was in the small group doing the longest workout, I was basically on my own at the end of the run, save for a few bike commuters whooshing past me on the parallel bike path. It was cold and getting dark and my legs were heavy and I was alone, but it wasn't lonely at all.
On second thought, maybe it was good that I didn't lug my camera along. I don't have the skills to make a camera capture peaceful.
I read this post a few hours after I wrote my own and I can't believe that we both wrote about Yassos!
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