There’s nothing quite like leaving your house in the early light, wondering if the weather will hold, and heading out on a long run. The air is still chilly, but at this time of the year, you know it will be almost too warm by the time you finish. Living in the country as I do, I also have a good amount of apprehension about what I might run into while on my run.

First there are the dogs. They are country dogs and hunting dogs – they protect their farms. Sure, some of them are nice. But some of them are in 10 foot chain link cages. And I’m glad they are, because they do not look or sound nice.

Then there are the other things – moose, mountain lion, and while it’s unlikely, it’s possible – bear. I’m more worried about the bear and moose while I’m trail running. Running by cow-filled, golden fields listening to the trickle of water early in the morning, I’m only too aware that it would be a prime location for mountain lion to have a morning stroll down by the river.

But as always, I didn’t run into anything unexpected except some horses outside their fence. I probably never will.

I think this apprehension is good – it keeps me from getting too comfortable prior to my run, and makes every run a new experience from me. Not getting too comfortable before my run will help come race day, when, no matter what, I’m going to be nervous. And as for every run being a new experience, making sure running, and especially your planned runs, don’t get boring can be a real challenge for runners. Having a running buddy or a running group is a good solution for this.

A good playlist with an adequate amount of run-time is also a good solution. With this, however, I take out one headphone while running outside. It helps to enjoy the sounds around you, plus it’s important to be aware of your surroundings. If that mountain lion ever is there, I certainly want to be able to hear it coming. And you don’t want to be surprised when the truck pulls by you at 60 miles an hour – you want to hear it coming.

When I’m running in the city, I run between fire hydrants. I’ll pick one, and run faster from that hydrant to the next, and then take it easy until the next one, repeating this for the mid-section of my run or until my brain gets distracted by something else.

My scheduled run for yesterday and moved to today was 6 miles at a 10:40 per mile pace. I did about 6.2 miles at closer to a 10:20 per mile pace. It was a beautiful morning. One week of training down, twelve to go.