"Look Kids-Big Ben! House of Parliament!"

You know what that means. It's time again for Tuesday at the track. Where I see the same landmarks over...and over....and over again.

I'll officially admit, though, that I am really enjoying my weekly track night, despite many long distance runners ranking it down there as one of the least favorite places to get in a workout. After dodging the injury bullet with what was starting to feel like a possible spring race season deal breaker, it's just exciting to cut loose and just run. I know my legs won't take a brutal pounding there, and it makes it easier to run hard and without worry. The track is part of our municipal stadium complex and is well maintained by the city, and the local college and area high schools use it for a variety of sporting and other events. It's also just a few blocks away from the dance studio where my kids spend much of their time, which works out perfectly to allow me to hit the track in the early evening when I'm through working, and then swing by the studio right before their last class ends.

After running in circles for an hour or two, I'll just have one workout left, and then a few days off before the Moab Red Hot 33K! Oh, am I ever happy now that I downgraded from the 50+K (AKA, 34 miles) for a variety of reasons. I think slushy and frozen are going to be the words of the day-great if you're at the Dairy Queen, but a lot of work on the trails. I'm kind of liking this "my leg doesn't hurt" thing and don't want to make a point of sliding around on it for so long that it does hurt once again.

We also thought early on that it would be a family weekend in Moab, since it's almost always warmer down there than here, and just a short two hours away. Then, it turned into me just going down the night before, and getting the cheapest motel I could find, coming back that night. Then, it turned into me feeling a lot better about going down when the husband offered to drive down early that morning, which would eliminate just about all expenses but gas. He and the kids could drop me at the start, go hiking or something, and then meet me at the finish. If I'd done the longer race, that would've been a lot more waiting around for them. The kids can hang well at races at this age, but there's still always that point in time where the spaz-o-meter goes crazy. That can spell epic fail family day, so the shorter race will get us out of there before it enters the red zone. I can also look forward to it being more of a change-of-scenery long run with potential for camera action. Even if the weather is craptastic, it can be more fun for it to be craptastic somewhere else than the same ol'. Ending the day with legs stretched out in the car and headed for home with the family, and someone else driving, doesn't sound like a bad way to post-race, either.