A New Trail

When I went out for my run this afternoon, I could really feel the three previous days of running and whatever, so I wanted to keep it flat and relatively easy. I decided to go back down the "Rookery" path, since it's not too hilly or rugged. But once I was on the path, I decided to take a different fork, a direction that I had never taken before. There were a few bits that were somewhat swampy, but I think that is probably unusual to the trail, but otherwise it was pretty nice. More interestingly, it took me down to a trail that was almost like an old, forgotten fire road. This put me across the road from a trail that I've been wanting to get to for a long time, but the only access to it that I knew about was down at the end of the company road, and I haven't really fancied the notion of everyone coming and going from their lunch hours, driving down the road and following my waddling fat ass. So, I was pretty pleased to find that this trail can take me there. The new trail is the "Duck Pond Path" and it is a series of trails that loop around a couple of hidden, swampy-looking ponds. It was rather brilliant really, completely deserted and it just seemed to go on & on. It branched in a number of places, so there may be some interesting trails to explore in the future, but the path I was on was relatively nice. Some hills, not a lot of them, not too bad in the rocks or ruts department, lots of bits of branches and roots to watch out for though. Oh and there were a crap load of mosquitoes out. It was stickier today than yesterday, so between that and being beside this pond thing, they were pretty numerous and annoying, I was continuously trying to slap them away. I was also extremely tired today. Dead feeling legs, sore quads (still) and just fatigued in general, so I really ran out of gas about two miles into the run. I've noticed that the mosquitoes tend to bother me more when I walk too, I guess the faster you go, the harder it is for them to keep up with you. More reason to work on speed. Anyway, I ended up taking a path that looped all the way around the water, bringing me back to where I entered that trail. I then backtracked down the other trail and back onto familiar ground. I ended up going farther than I had really intended to this afternoon (about 3.5 miles or so) and as a result, I ended up walking quite a bit more (especially on the return trip) than I usually have to. But after a while trying to get my tired legs to pick it up became an almost impossible task. I really need to work on that endurance thing too. Well, I guess I shouldn't be too rough on myself, this was the fourth straight day in a row that I've done some running. I haven't really done that in a good while. Anyway, not my best run, but it was fun and interesting to discover a new trail that I can add to my routine!