Another Beautiful Day in the Outer Banks!/Monday Brain Exchange

Could life be any better?  Perfect temperatures!  Great friends! Good food!  No schedule!  THE OCEAN!

"Beach Kill - I can never resist taking pictures of beach kill."

You reach the top of this path and there it is!

Only if you have really good eyes will you see the dolphins in this picture!

I went for two runs today. The first one was this morning. I ran on the beach, a great deal of the time with no one around but the ocean and me!  I went more than 6 miles and it took me a long time. I ran fairly slowly and stopped to watch dolphins and take pictures.  There was  a dolphin feeding very close to the shore. I tried to get pics but blew it.  The sun was so bright I couldn't preview what I had taken!  I saw many dolphins but had the most fun watching  one feeding close to the shore.  As I was headed back I saw what I thought was  a bird after something on the beach.  As I got closer I realized it was a seal. It headed back into the water.  I watched it for awhile but then went back to running and looking for dolphins!  Overall I was just having a great time.

LOVING BEING HERE!

I came back and got in the hot tub and read my book.  The whole day was all about doing nothing constructive.  Later in the day everyone headed back to the beach. I decided to run again.  When we got there I was very distracted from my run by ALL THE DOLPHINS! They were everywhere.  They were in pods of 9 or so and everywhere you looked you could see them feeding.  I would run a few feet and stop to watch them  again.  They were in one area in particular and even jumping out of the water.  I had SO MUCH FUN watching them.  I asked some fishermen if this was common and they said in all the years they have been coming they have never seen so many  going so "crazy." I did get a whole two miles in but it was very very hard running because the tide was in so far that you had to run on very soft sand and it was tough!  I tried but without a lot of success.

Now for the Monday Brain Exchange from One Little Tri Girl:
How do you train?  Do you use a schedule, have a coach or go with the flow?  Do you train alone or with group?

I definitely use a schedule if I am training for a marathon or a half marathon.  I use Hal Higdon most of the time and am rather anal about following it. If I am not training for a longer race I go with the flow.  I run five days a week and have a minimum number of miles I "have to do."  I have never had a coach but love the idea.  I don't run with a group but would love to at times.  I do have a great weekend running partner!