Running

I am one of those strange people that really enjoys running. I am not particularly fast or fit, but I like the way I feel afterward-the runner's high as they call it. Running really makes me feel like progress towards fitness has been made instantaneously. Lately, I have been struggling a bit. I am still managing to run a few times a week but I am not getting that good feeling anymore. My "last chance NZ diet" consisting of Indian food, fish and chips, store-bought biscuits, homemade biscuits, cadbury chocolate, natural confectionery/allens anything, souvlakis, and whatever else you can think of, has taken a toll on my systems and I am feeling really really yuck. Running was kind of the 'undo" button for my poor eating habits but the "undo" button seems to be broken. My heart feels noticeably sluggish. It isn't that healthy slow beat of a low heart rate it is more like the slow beat of arteries that are filled with rubbish. I struggle to run now and it is not freeing at all. I hurt, my lungs hurt, it all hurts.
Be that as it may, I was sorting through some photos and as part of my "Going to Miss New Zealand" series that I will start posting, I came across pictures of my running loop. I need a loop because I get super lost otherwise. I love my running loop. It goes through a bird sanctuary right next to my house called Travis Wetlands or as it is known in the Berg household-The Swamp. When we first moved here, we showed the girls where Shrek lived to keep them interested in the long walk. There are several things I love about my loop. Year-round I love how my loop has several different surfaces and views. It is cheesy, but I like to keep the level of my music down so that I can still hear myself running. I get to have the steady thump on the pavement and then transition to the crunch of gravel, the slosh of mud then go to the hollowness of the wood planks then back to gravel and then pavement. It is motivating and interesting to have the change and it is oh so nice on my knees. I love how in spring I can smell the honeycomb and around every corner is new life. I have seen baby black swans, fuzzy baby blue pukekos, families of duck, horses and cattle. The nice thing about a loop is that you can go around as many or few times as you want. So, if you have made it this far into my post you now get to indulge yourself in the pleasure of looking at my boring landscapes of my running loop taken earlier this year-autumnish so it isn't quite as lush and green as it can get. I regret not getting the pictures of the "fairy forest" part but it was too shady. Enjoy or not.