Running somewhere new is always great

I'm less than 3 weeks away from my half marathon on August 16th. I took last week very, very easy. Only ran 21 miles. I feel really good physically right now. So now I have 2 hard weeks of training (52 miles this week, 54 next), followed by a week of taper. The only hard part of taking such a slow week is getting started again. Rest feels goooooooooood! =) And the food tastes really good too. Problem is, I end up eating too much of it. LOL. My appetite control is much better when I run. With such a slow week, I find myself walking in the kitchen too much, looking in the pantry, or fridge, and finding something to eat. Needless to say, I put on a few pounds last week with the lower activity level. I expect them to mostly disappear this week. By raceday, I should be fit & ready.

And it looks like I'll have a fun week of running. We'll be in Gatlinburg, TN from Friday to Tuesday, so that should make for some scenic runs. I'm looking forward to that. I guess Cades Cove is closed until 10AM on Wednesday & Saturday so people can use it for walking and running. That should be a great run. I plan to put in my 14-miler there. Hopefully the weather holds up. And no bear attacks me! LOL. My other runs I'll have to figure out where to have, but I'm sure they'll be nice too. If I were a trail runner, I'd be in the perfect place. Someday I'd like to do some trail running, but I don't think I'll do it right now, before my race. I can picture myself tripping a root, or limb, and breaking something. But someday, I'll have some trail shoes, no upcoming race, and the Appalachian trails at my doorstep. Someday.