Tag: Bison

Thankful for Feeling the Positive Results of Training and ANOTHER Bison Sighting

Day 2,022

Last week’s 9 mile training run was brutal. Nothing felt right, it was all off, and it was one of the less pleasant runs I’ve had in a very long time. Regardless, I did it. Today I was able to reap the benefits of it.

Our training run today was on a paved trail in Ankeny, Iowa. After a couple of miles the trail was completely out of town and we were running in between farm fields with only the occasional little bit of brush and some barbed wire fences. The way out we had the winds at our back, on the way in we were running into a 20+ mph headwind. The sun was out and the temperature was in the mid forties, pretty much ideal.

In continuing a weird streak this was the second time when I happened to run past the very much unexpected bison! How wild is that???

One of the best parts of this run was how great I felt before, during, and after the run. Everything clicked throughout the ten miles. Even now I’ve only got a little bit of stiffness in one ankle, the rest of me feels fantastic. If I was pressed to I know I could take off on a 5k right now, very different than last weekend’s ordeal.

I am so grateful for seeing the positive impact of training today. All runs, even especially the difficult ones, strengthen me up for the next. Each longer and longer run beats my body up just enough to break it a little so that it heals itself stronger for the next one. I could 100% feel that positive impact today.

Quick note to my future self who may be reading this sometime later… What a wonderful reminder of how we all grow through difficulty and adversity. True growth occurs during periods of challenge.

Thanks!!!

Thankful for a Perfectly Surreal Winter Running Experience

Day 2,020

I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks! Rather than stay out and bark at the moon with some cohorts I chose to be in bed before 10pm. This move allowed me to get up and moving a little before 5:30am this morning.

Even though I was out of town for work I still wanted to knock out my Friday morning run, especially knowing that there was a lot of car time in my future. I got up, knocked the rust off my joints, and got ready to head out for my run.

As luck would have it there was what appeared to be a nice little trail only a couple of blocks from my hotel. Off I went into the snow, ice, and stiff wind with my headlamp on and my headphones playing an album from one of my new favorite bands that I’d never listened to before.

Only a couple of days ago my friend James turned me on to The Rural Alberta Advantage and I’ve been working my way through all of their albums. The next one up was Mended with Gold – I’d highly recommend giving it a listen.

The music was beyond perfect for the winter run. I’m struggling to put into words the reasons why it fit so well. The best I can come up with is that it was just perfect. I know, great work in being descriptive Kreiling, right? The sound, the tempo, the lyrics, the emotion in the voice… everything fit the cold, bitter, windy, snowy, and icy run in the pre-dawn lighting. Hmm… the music was raw in almost a primal way, the way the run felt.

As if that wasn’t already enough to create an epic running experience I crested a hill, turned a little corner, and saw this…

Yessir, those are buffalo! Bison Bison if you will. The trail skirted the little zoo and wildlife park in Marshfield, WI. Unbeknownst to me this meant I had an opportunity to get relatively up close and personal with one of my favorite animals. The hairy giants added to the surrealness of the run. It was only the bison and I out and about as there were no roads, houses, or people nearby.

Just before I encountered the bison the song Runners In the Night, a wonderfully perfect soundtrack for that exact moment.

I had to pause and just take it all in. The entire event was so surreal on so many levels. The profoundness of the presence I experienced in that moment is indescribable. It was a perfectly surreal winter running experience. Beautiful in so many levels, my heart still swell with joy as I think about it.

Thanks!!!