10/5

Today's Plan: long run
You know those days you keep telling yourself if you just get to a certain spot, you can turn around? I made a lot of promises to myself today.  First when I almost got blown backwards by a gust of wind, I promised that I would just run to the top of the mountain to take some photos. Then I realized that because of the layout of the mountain I needed to go down a bit further...and further...and then I was at the bottom. I didn't want to climb the mountain, so I convinced myself it was easier to continue in the 5m loop than to go back up. (I was in mile 1.5 of the 5. I really didn't want to go up the mountain)
I want to point out that it was gusty and rainy, the weatherman who promised that the storm was going out overnight to give us a nice morning was wrong. I am going back to the look out the window method.  There was one  particular hill I was worried about in running the loop this way.  I remember my mom trying to teach me to do hill stops on this hill with our standard Escort.  It did not work all that well.
I had to keep pep talking myself all the way to that hill. I made it up and I swear the sun came out. The weatherman was just a bit behind, I guess.  My 4th and 5th mile were actually the fastest of the loop. I felt like I could keep going forever--until I hit my driveway and my legs stopped suddenly.
After doing a bit of housework, I went out to ride Charby. The gusts of wind made her a bit flighty. Horses can hear far better than us, so hearing noises from far away carried by the wind and not having any idea of the causes can be startling to them. We had a bit of a tussle over whether we should canter or not (she voted yes, I voted no), but in general we had a good ride. It's such a pleasure to work with her.  She has such a personality that I don't people who don't ride realize. Horses are unique individuals and it can so much fun just to hang with them.