Autumn....time for a refresh.

The seasons of running (well, and life) can sometimes seem…relentless. Sign up for a race. Pick a training plan. Commit. Find a good running partner. Work on fueling. Churn and churn. Get to race day. Have an awesome/stressful/flop (pick one) day. Repeat.

At some point, any one of us can look down at the bib pinned to our shirt and the Garmin on our wrist and and water bottle on our waist and think “what is this all for?”

Sometimes, you need a break.

After a break, sometimes your why is a whole lot clearer.

We’re excited over here at Mile Markings for several reasons. One, the air in the mornings feels a little cooler, and that always makes us have a little more pep when we lace up our shoes. Two, the leaves starting to fall reminds us that we can let some things go to make space for new things (for us, that means a refresh in our logo and some new exciting products poppin’ in our store). Three, taking a break away from the grind can remind us the amazingness of this community and get us all jazzed up for what’s to come.

After a break, you can come back stronger. More passionate. Energized.

Fall Break Running!

It’s one thing to run on your home turf. Your stuff is there, there’s no way to be left unprepared. Running on vacation? Now that takes some planning. You have to bring #allthethings including clothing options for different weather. You have to have plenty of podcasts already downloaded, or have wifi available (side note: do people download things on data? Cause maybe I’m just cheap). And besides all the planning, you have to actually drag yourself out of bed early when there’s no work to be done and no alarms going off and actually put one foot in front of the other. That takes some dedication.

I have definitely done the dance of packing the capris, tanks, sports bras, arm warmers, gear belts, water packs, and then….nada. Ignored the clock and told myself I was walking more than I do on a normal day anyway and what’s one week with little red dots on my Training Peaks profile?

Well, this long weekend was different. Our fam was road-tripping (like we do) to Niagara Falls, which is about an 8 hour drive from our place in Indy. And it all just clicked this week: the hotel in Mentor, OH was in a nice little area and the front desk lady assured me it was safe to run so I got a good 5-miler in before breakfast. Then after a long day visiting the Falls, the boys were going to go to the hotel pool, and I decided it made NO SENSE to NOT run: we were smack-dab in the middle of Niagara Falls State Park with plenty of paved trails and it was 50 degrees and why not? Boom, 5 more miles. (side note: my watch went nuts and said I was running a 1:58 min/mile for a few minutes, so bank error in my favor?)

I don’t always succeed in running on vacation, but I always want to. That counts, right? There’s something satisfying in feeling like you’ve seen a city on foot. Like, I know this place a little better because I saw it at 7am when most people were still asleep.

What about you? Are weekend getaways time for a break? Or time for running?

Scenes from Niagara run!