This is the second week I've managed to drag myself out of bed at 5am to get to training runs at Garden of the Gods by 6am.  While it sounds awful as I hit the snooze button and nudge my dog to wake up (she doesn't; she's still curled up on my bed when I get home) as soon as I pull on my running tights I'm looking forward to putting in a few miles (and hills) before my body is really awake enough to grasp what's going on.  Perhaps best of all, by the time I'm driving home, Starbucks in hand, I'm planning my second run of the day.  This is the beauty of early morning runs - it makes ample time recover from the first run and hit the trails again.

Now on the remaining days of the week I've convinced myself to train before work as well.  What's really odd is that I'm starting to go to bed anticipating my morning run.  You know you're a runner when you go to bed with a smile on your face simply because you get to run again tomorrow.  That puts a training cycle into perspective, doesn't it?  Even if I'm dreading a particular run, I still come home excited about the next challenge.

Hills repeats this afternoon? Happily :-)