Place of Zen

After a horrible 6 day stretch on reserve which tested me in more mental ways then I care to mention here, my reward was a nice stretch of 4 days off. I'm still on that stretch and it's oh so nice to not think about work.

We went down to Tucson for a couple of the days. Tucson, as you may remember, has Trisports.com, an active cycling community, and best of all, Sabino Canyon. Last time we came here, we hiked up to the top of it and back down. This trip, we decided to run the canyon.

While we were running up the canyon, I was looking around at all the cacti, including many that I had taken pictures of last time we were hiking up there and I got this incredible sense of zen. A feeling I haven't had on a run in a long time. It truly felt like "my" place to run. Even though we ended up cutting our run short and not running up the entire canyon, it was still an incredible feeling to just be there. To be on vacation, away from the daily grind that my job has become, and to be in a place that I love, it was an incredible feeling.

I'm curious, blog readers. What's your workout place of zen? Where are you at most peace when you work out? There's others for me, but I think if I could run in Sabino Canyon every time, I would achieve some ridiculous nirvana that even the Hindu people would be jealous of.

On another note, I did an 8 miler this morning, my long run for the week. I averaged a 9:50 mile pace on it. Vegas, you're mine! Bring it on!