Tonight I found myself on the treadmill again. I was planning on running at 11 a.m. when the baby took her nap. But, guess what?!? She didn’t nap. I spent an hour trying to get her back to sleep after she snoozed for 20 minutes. Brent was busy, so it was on me. And it just didn’t happen. I gave up and decided I would run during her afternoon nap…

BUT afternoon nap came and it was snowing and super windy outside. Overcast skies gave the impression that it was dusk, though it was only 2 p.m. Two problems with running in this scenario – 1) I really didn’t feel like being cold. I’ll be the first to admit, I’ve gotten very soft since my Nebraska days of meeting my training partner, Scott, at 6 a.m. in 20 degrees wearing only shorts and a cotton long sleeve. It takes too much energy to get psyched up to freeze for a 45 minute run. It’s just not fun anymore. I must be getting old. and 2) Since it was dark and reminiscent of dusk, all I can think about when I’m running is MOUNTAIN LIONS! eeek. I knew when we moved up here that Golden Gate Canyon State Park has the highest per capita population of Mt. Lions in the U.S. I usually just run in the middle of the day with a mace sprayer (not that that would do anything). But on Halloween night, I saw my first big guy. He was hunkering in the ditch on my way home from trick-or-treating  in Boulder. Since then, I’ve been even more creeped out on any run past 3 p.m. I just picture myself as a t-bone steak with legs. Since it was dark-ish, I really didn’t want to be out on the back country roads.