16 miles? During a cold front? Not a problem!

Today's long run was the 16-miler.  The cold front continued, which was probably the most fortuitous weather ever.  I was concerned about today's long run because it coincided with the switch to Daylight Savings.  Just because the clock goes back by an hour does not mean that Mr. Florida Sun cooperates.  I wanted to make sure that I got started early enough so that 10am did not feel like 11am.  However, with the cold front, this concern was irrelevant.  I went out a bit later than I had hoped (was planning to go out around 6:30am, and went instead closer to 7am), but it was fine.

Apparently, I have almost lost any skills I once had for how to dress in cooler weather.  The basic rule that I like to follow is to dress for the finish, not the beginning, because of course you do warm up while you run.  But Florida does not really require much thinking in the appropriate dress department.  Generally, I just go in shorts and a performance singlet.  So when the temperature drops, it now confuses me.  I didn't want to overdress, but I also didn't want to freeze at the beginning.  I went with shorts, long-sleeve performance shirt, and an actual ballcap.  Actual ballcaps are too hot normally, so I figured that it would pay off today.  This combo worked pretty well and I didn't feel uncomfortable at any point -- okay, maybe a little cold to start.

The temperature was in the 40s to start, then got into the 60s by the end.  In other words: perfect.  And the dew point was in the 30s.  As much as Florida drives me nuts, the weather during cold fronts is pretty much ideal (how unfortunate that cold fronts are maybe 5% of the year).  You get the cold, Arctic wind from up north, but you don't usually feel cold because the sun is still warm.  It's pretty easy to cope with these conditions.  If you feel cold from the wind, you get the sun to warm you up.  And if you feel too warm, you go in the shade or wait for a gust of wind.

As tends to happen in good weather conditions, I am reminded that I actually do not hate running.  I know, I've been over this before, but I really do sometimes forget.  The weather here is generally very difficult to negotiate for me, no matter what time of day.  So when I actually get to run in reasonable conditions, it is a real treat.  And I realized something else.  I may not be very good at running long distances, but I don't mind running long distances.  Especially in good weather.  I feel like I've reached a good point mentally where long runs don't actually feel so long and I stay strong through the last part.  For instance, I got to 4.5 miles from the end today and felt like the rest was going to be just fine to finish.  This is encouraging and a great feeling.  The last part wasn't even so bad, overall.  Now I just have to remember how those last miles feel when I run the real marathon.

Also, here is hoping for similar weather conditions!

I did have one small freakout today when I checked my time around 6 miles.  For some unknown reason, I convinced myself that 8 miles (the halfway point) was around a quarter of the marathon.  I started freaking out because I thought that I was running significantly slower than I had anticipated.  It took me until somewhere around 12 miles to realize that actually, 8 miles is closer to two-thirds of the way through a marathon.  This makes a pretty big difference, as the following fictional comparison demonstrates (fictional because I do not run this fast):

• 1 hour/8 miles in my erroneous first version would result in a 4-hour marathon;
• 1 hour/8 miles would be closer to a 3-hour marathon.

See how that happened?  It added a whole hour.  Even for this imaginary fast person.

I have one last comment about today's run.  When I train, I don't listen to music, but I do sometimes get music in my head.  For a while, it was various chamber music of the nineteenth century (I know, I'm a geek); for instance, Schumann's string quartet in A major (op. 41/3) would often be my imagined accompaniment.  You don't need to tell me that this is weird, I know already.  There is something about the strings all working together in chamber music that I feel works while running.  Today, though, I suddenly had Bob Seger's 'Hollywood Nights' burst out of nowhere around mile 5.  Random, even though it was on the radio yesterday.

The best moment ever was when I was 2 miles from the end of a long run while training for a half-marathon and Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' started up as if on cue in my head.  Seemed appropriate.

Ask and ye shall receive

Probably I should not have said anything about the remarkable no-rain streak.  I woke up this morning to this:

Plus the weather looks like it is going to stay disruptive all day.  Last night thunder woke me up.  Probably best to take a pass.  NASA is delaying their shuttle launch because of these storms.  I feel like if NASA is willing to delay a shuttle launch, maybe I have an excuse not to go for my 5M run.

However, tomorrow is going to be in the 60s as a high (!), so despite the fact that I don't usually like to run on Fridays because I get tired from work, tomorrow I will make an exception.  Should be good!  The two weather channels that I watched this morning both made it seem like weather in the 60s was a bad thing.  Really?

Flipping the schedule

Today was 9 miles, which according to the schedule should have been on Thursday.  However, I have several obligations that day so I figured it was better to get the longer run over with today (Thursday will now be 5M with hills).  Nine miles is the new 8 miles, apparently, because today's run really didn't feel all that bad either.  However, it was probably helped by the fact that it was cooler (around 70F) and overcast the whole time.

The overcast, actually, was a bit concerning because it definitely picked up as I went along.  I checked three different weather forecasts this morning, not because I was worried about rain but because they were somewhat contradictory: AccuWeather put the humidity at 80%, while WeatherBug had it at 98% or something disgusting like that.  But not one of them had mentioned rain around the time I was running.  Luckily, it held off.  There was just a brief shower right now, but it's about two hours later.

I also realized something weird.  In my entire training program, I have not once been caught out in the rain.  It's been close and there were a few times that I thought I would, but it has never actually rained while I was out.  Now we have had a dry fall (there was basically no rain in October), but this seems unusual for Florida.  Here's hoping I can keep that streak going for the rest of training!

Weather holds for another 5 miles

Today's run was the same as last Tuesday's: 5 miles with 6 minutes of total uphill time.  I ran the same route as last week too.  The most notable improvement for this week's run was the fact that there was no potentially life-threatening storms circling around.  Hurray!

Actually, the weather was far more pleasant than I thought it could be.  This is definitely closer to winter weather (it's 5pm right now and it's only 83F.  If you can imagine!).  I was actually chilly when I started my run this morning.  Chilly!  If only for a brief moment.  It was in the low 60s with a crisp breeze.  I didn't even think that we had crisp breezes in Florida, apart from the very occasional cold front.

There is only one problem: when the weather gets more tolerable, I want to really crank it while running.  This is a problem for two reasons:

1) I'm not trained to really crank it from all of those weeks of taking it slow due to weather impediments;
2) I'm running a freaking marathon, not something where you need to crank it.  By cranking it, I risk injuring myself or at least putting too much strain on my body.  So this is a terrible strategy.

But it is so hard to resist!  Maybe I will get better as the weather gets better.  I will at least stay focused on not cranking it during long runs, that was not my best idea on Sunday.  My primary concern is that I will get to the marathon, find out that it is cooler than I am accustomed to, and get going too fast.  Yes, these are the things that I worry about.  So probably it would be best if I just took things slow.  Starting tomorrow.  Totally.

Halloween is coming

Today I braved the icky conditions and decided to run in the morning anyway.  The Office and 30 Rock are on later, after all.  As I was running, I noticed that my time was very slow.  Like, horrible long run of a few weeks ago slow.  I got frustrated with myself, wondering why my time was so bad and wanting to be a better runner and all kinds of other things that I had plenty of time to contemplate since it was a 7-mile run.  Then when I checked the weather, I realized that, in fact, it had been over the ick threshold for the whole time.  Lesson learned: slow running -- particularly when you have been training consistently -- is probably the result of disgusting weather.  We're talking temperature in the 70s with humidity of 90% icky.  At least some of it was overcast.

The run took place in parts of Stephanie and David's neighborhood (still did not see Stephanie), then I came back over to my part and finished there.  It would seem that several of Stephanie and David's neighbors have put up Halloween decorations already.  Also, it would seem that some of them are pretty into Halloween decorations.  Here are some of the highlights that I saw today:

These two photos are of different parts from the same house.

When I ran by this morning, the ghost was deflated.

Apparently, you do not want to cross into this yard.  They have ghosts guarding it.

One of the houses was particularly ready for Halloween.  All of the remaining photos were from the same place:

This is at the start of the street.  Makes me wonder if more people usually dress up their houses.

Fact: most of the houses that had Halloween decorations up already also had fancy mailboxes.

I feel like 'spooky' and 'palm tree' just don't blend, somehow.

This is the spooky graveyard.

These inflatable things are popular.  I feel like this one is more Thanksgiving-themed, though.

I wonder how the bears feel about being usurped during Halloween.

Playing with lightning

I got up this morning, looked at the weather, and saw that it was a balmy 78F with 90% humidity with a dew point somewhere in the 70s (I forget what exactly).  Then I realized that I actually had zero interest in running during this weather so I checked to see what the evening forecast was.  Accuweather informed me that there was a chance of some scattered thunderstorms.  Now if you live in Florida, you know that the forecast from May - November is, essentially, "Daytime high of 90F with a chance of some scattered thunderstorms in the late afternoon."  So it was hard to pay much attention to it.  I decided to risk it over enduring a 5-mile run with hills in while encountering the ick threshold.

Then, as I was chatting with my friend Sib around 3:30PM, I noticed that not only had the sky grown dark, but that there was also thunder.  This did not bode well, in my view.  I grew concerned that maybe there was going to be a thunderstorm of some duration.  Checking the radar (including Bay News 9's Klystron, the most powerful weather radar in the world), I saw a large wall of storms.  I hoped that it would clear for around 6pm.  At 5pm, there was a severe weather alert issued for strong storms that could include lightning, hail, and other stuff that maybe you wouldn't want to run in.

I started to feel like I had tempted fate one time too many.  It was going to have to be the treadmill or risk being hit by lightning.  As you probably already noticed, the treadmill is not my favorite solution.  In fact, while chatting with Sib, she commented that when I talked about the treadmill, I made it sound like torture.  And sometimes, it can feel like torture.  Not to mention that 5 miles is a long time to spend on one when you are slow like me.  Plus there is no guarantee that the temperature in the running room won't be crazy high like last time.

I kept a very close eye on the various radars and noticed that around 6pm, things were looking much better.  So I decided to risk it.  Here are a few pictures that I took right before the run:

From the car on the way to the golf course neighborhood.  At this point, I was having second thoughts.

One thing that Florida is good for: lengthy stretches of flat so that you can see just how far the storm extends.

I took this one right after parking my car at the rec center (that there is the rec center in the middle ground).  By this point, I was having tenth thoughts about going.

I planned my route so that at no time was I too far from some kind of shelter, whether that be a rec center (there are two), school (there were several), or some kind of church with generous overhang (there were two, but they were kind of too close to each other to be practical).  That way, if there was going to be lightning, I would be ready.  However, I hit it lucky because all of that scary looking weather?  It was going away.  And it actually left some pretty sweet conditions.  The temperature was 76F.  This is considerably better when it is overcast than it would have been this morning.  In fact, I daresay that it was downright pleasant.

There was one concession that I made.  I decided not to run with my phone in case of downpour.  Unlike the last time I did this, when it was a timed run (1 hour), I was supposed to complete five miles with hills today.  So I drew on the resource of Map My Run,  which lets you map your run, as you likely surmised.   This was a new website for me.  I can certainly see how it is a useful one since you can just click and create your route.  Much better than the old days when I used to painstakingly plan my maps using Mapquest and entering every single intersection to get the distance (remember Mapquest?).  With Map My Run, you just click and it shows you how far your route is.  It's a very commercialized site, which I could have done without, but it did accomplish the main task.  I wasn't very adept at using it, but I was in a hurry and trying to get out as fast as I could before some massive storm cropped up.  With some practice, I'm sure I would find it very helpful for these scenarios.

And I actually could run!  In fact, I think that my time was maybe not awful, even by normal standards.  As I finished up my run, the sun was setting and the sky -- which was no longer scary and terrifying -- produced some pretty nice views:

The 'after' picture from the rec center

What amazes me is the range of colors.  All of these pictures were taken within 15 minutes of each other.

This is the far side of a baseball field near one of the schools.  When I ran past it, there was the scary grey sky.  Quite a contrast within an hour!

Still in the golf course neighborhood.

There was even a rainbow that could be seen from the rec center parking lot!

Driving back home.

This is actually taken from my home, but I thought that it was pretty awesome and wanted to share.  That's looking out toward the Little Pond.

And the best part about today's run: I did not get struck down by lightning.  Win!

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have marathon training

For a wide variety of reasons, I couldn't get out this morning.  Chief amongst those reasons was that the weather was unpredictable.  There is a disturbance in the Gulf (why yes, I did see some of the Star Wars marathon on Spike this weekend), creating a tropical storm over on the Texas side -- Tropical Storm Hermine to be exact.  Now, while we are far from Texas, there is still enough of an overall disturbance to make weather here dicey.  It was rainy this morning, then overcast after that.  Plus I had a few things that needed taking care of first thing.  End result: no run this morning.

I was hoping to wait until ~7pm, then go, but every time I checked the weather, this seemed like a bad idea.  Both Accuweather and Weather.com indicated that the longer I waited, the worse the chances of a possibly violent storm.  Then the skies appeared to be getting overcast around 5pm.  I decided that rather than gambling by waiting, I would head out and bear the brunt of the hot.  This was probably the right move since when I got home, there was a warning for western Hillsborough county (I'm in the eastern part) that there were violent storms with a funnel cloud spotted.  Pass.  Although I did locate a convenient shelter from storms along my route today, yay. 

And hot it was.  The sun envelops you like it just isn't going to let go.  Like Dementors in Harry Potter, only with warmth instead of cold and no Lupin to hand you chocolate.  Things were almost manageable in the shade, but Mr. Florida Sun was strong.  Not to mention that because the sun was still relatively high in the sky, there was less shade overall.  Accuweather seems to think that the heat index was around 96F and while I sometimes think that they exaggerate, it was not exactly ideal at the start of the run.  However, I persevered and that is what matters.

Sometimes I wonder if I would be a faster runner if I had stayed up north and continued to run.  I probably would be.  But I think I'm a tougher runner from being down here.

So much of this was the bad.  But there were a few good moments too.  As I was driving over to the golf course neighborhood, I heard the piano exit from 'Layla,' which is one of my favorite things right now.  I must be on some weird Scorsese kick because as I write this, I am listening to the final number from the St. Matthew Passion, which features prominently in Scorsese's Casino.  Yeah, it was sunny today, hence the random.

Anyway, I also had an insight as I ran.  I was going along a sunny part and thinking about how I just had to grit through this -- YES, I did just turn 'grit' into a verb with an unusual usage!  Then I started thinking about how in yoga you are supposed to be in the moment and not worry about the future.  However, that is basically the opposite of what I generally do when running.  I am constantly thinking about the future.  Am I going too fast?  Could I go faster?  How much further do I have to go?  Will my current route cover that or will I have to add on (or find a shortcut)?  Where is the next stretch of shade?  Can I beat the garbage truck home?  You get the idea.  For me, running is all about not being in the moment, it is about being in the next moment.  No idea if this is a good strategy, just something that went through my head around mile 3 while running in the Florida sun. 

When I got back, I learned something interesting: according to my phone, I have run 97 miles so far training for my marathon.  But actually, I have run more.  The 5k Salem run isn't included in there, so that puts me at 100 miles, plus there are the two hour-long runs that I did the past couple of weeks.  I am over 100 miles!  This seems cool for some reason.

Stupid weather wind arrows

This morning was still better than most days, but I can feel the heat is building again.  I saw a weather forecast yesterday, and they had these arrows to show the direction of the wind.  The arrows were switching from an eastwardly direction to a westwardly one.  In my view, this does not bode well.  I would imagine that there is more humidity and ick coming from a westwardly direction, since that's where the Gulf of Mexico is.  Also, Hurricane Earl is currently to the eastwardly direction, which I suspect is helping to sap some of the humidity out of the atmosphere.  Earl is set to move up the coast in the next few days.

Sigh.  At least I got out while it lasted!

Today's run was my 1 hour.  I doodled around the neighborhood and had a moment of excitement around 45 minutes, when I realized that I had forgot to put the garbage out.  I tried cutting through my neighborhood in fun and interesting new ways so as to beat the garbage truck, only to find that it had already passed.  Drat!  Although it did liven up the run somewhat.

Miracle in Temple Terrace

I am about to reveal something shocking about my run this morning, so you might want to sit down before reading.

The weather was actually bearable today.

In August.

By the way, it doesn't matter that it is the end of August, usually the awful weather stays until late October/early November.  So this is very unusual.

I got off to a bit of a late start today.  If you've been following the blog, you might have picked up on the fact that I am not really a leap-out-of-bed-at-5-am-to-run person.  I'm pretty good at getting out once I'm up, but sometimes that takes a few taps on the snooze button before it happens.  Then I don't like to leap into my running clothes and go immediately: I check my Gmail and Facebook, normally, along with the weather conditions.  Then I go.

The hazard in this approach is that by 9am, Mr. Florida Sun is getting mighty strong, so sometimes I get started too late.  However, this is tempered by the fact that the humidity is usually better if you go later.  The usual dilemma.

Today I definitely got started a bit later than I would have liked.  I stepped out of the car at around 9am and was stunned to find that the conditions were not awful.  Now, this is within the context of Florida in the summer: it still wasn't 60F with a refreshing breeze, but it was comparable to a hot summer day up north.  I still can't get over the conditions (this information is coming from Accuweather):

Temperature: 79F
Humidity: 82%
Dew point: 74F

Did you see that?  Dew point was 74F!  Not hovering near the 80s!  And if you add the temperature plus humidity, you will notice that the result is 161.  That is just barely over the evil 160 threshold.  And there was a breeze.  A somewhat cool breeze.  A somewhat cool breeze that helped in evaporating the sweat, even in the sun. 

I have no idea how long this will last, if it will last at all.  But it was nice to run this morning.  It's amazing how much less I look at my phone grimacing in agony when the conditions are bearable.  Incidentally, today was another four mile plus 4 hill minutes day, with some running by the golf course added in.  In the sun.  Without dying.  It's a Temple Terrace miracle!

Today is a treadmill day

One thing that is good about running in Florida is that the weather is predictable about 99% of the time: it is sunny, humid, and hot, with the chance of an afternoon thunderstorm.  The same applies in the winter but with fewer thunderstorms and slightly less hot/humid.  However, when I woke up this morning, the skies were looking somewhat ominous.  I decided to check the weather to see if it made sense to go this morning or if I should wait until later -- actually, I wasn't really feeling like running, so part of this was simply me feeling lazy.  As I was doing that, it started pouring rain.  If you look at the radar image below (you can click on it to make it bigger), I live in the part marked Temple Terrace and that vast storm is moving toward me.  Actually, I think it just got here because it's been pouring for the past 10 minutes, accompanied by thunder and lightning.  I'm glad that I was not out running in this!

They are calling for rain and thunderstorms for the rest of the day.  I think I will opt for the treadmill instead.

Follow-up (1/2 hour later...I still would have been running): there was just a ground strike close by with thunder following almost immediately.  Yeah, definitely a treadmill day.

Day 1 is done!

Okay, one run down, countless runs to go. I actually was thinking along these lines a few times during my run this morning, then realized that this is stupid. If all you think about is how much there is to go, it will just be depressing. Same philosophy will apply at the start line: if you stand there thinking that you have to run 26.2 miles, you might just want to lie down and cry. Well, at least I would. Better to take it one step at a time because that way you can think about how each step is progress toward the goal.

It was by no means the most pleasant run I've ever done. Before I left, the RealFeel temperature was already in the 90s (this was around 8:40am). At least the humidity was 'low,' by which I mean in the 80% range. However, I did like the ample shade provided by the lovely trees in my neighborhood. It really does make a big difference.

I used my fancy new phone rig, which worked relatively well, except that it insists on telling me my time (that and it was preset in kilometers...good thing today was only three miles, which is a little less than 5k). I don't want to know my time. In fact, I rarely keep time except during races (and then sometimes I force myself to forget quickly). As a relatively competitive person, I realized a long time ago that keeping time on every one of my runs was more harmful than good. You don't necessarily make steady progress when you run, at least not every time you go out. Some days, for whatever reason, you will be faster and some days you will be slower. This is just how it is. For me, I found that tracking each run made me frustrated when I couldn't figure out why I was slower on a given day. Instead, I decided to just go run with the belief that gradual progress would be made. I keep thinking that someday I will reconcile with keeping time and get better with it, but I don't feel that marathon training is the time to do this. I'm not running this race for a time, I'm running to finish. That's it.

It would be super cool, though, if you did shave off time every run you did. Imagine if you ran 5 days a week, 40 weeks of the year, and every time you took off 3 seconds from your mile. You'd take a minute off your mile a year. In 5 years, I would practically be ready for the Olympics.

The Challenge of Florida

Today I got a new toy, one of those armbands that lets you run with your phone. This is not because I actually want to run with the phone (I am pretty much a running purist and don't even take music...more on that probably later), but because my phone is also a GPS unit. Voila, instant distance tracker. This toy will be especially fun since I live in a part of Tampa with lots of old trees -- which provide lots of nice shade -- and twisty streets to explore. Much nicer than Upper Middle Suburbia, where I moved from: the running mostly consisted of the same loop, some of which was directly in the sun no matter what the time of day.

Official running starts tomorrow with a little 3 mile jaunt. However, even this short run is going to be a challenge. The Challenge of Florida, to be exact. The Challenge of Florida is something I have been battling since I moved here in 2007 and I haven't yet found a way of beating it.

What is the Challenge of Florida? Simply that I find it far too wretched for running. When I first moved here, I was aware that it was hot, but unaware of how pernicious Florida heat could be. In fact, it's not really the heat per se (although it is hot, don't get me wrong), but the humidity and dew point combined. Also, the sun is very strong, which is tough on us Northerners.

Here is the basic problem: during the day, the strong sun heats up the air. That makes it too hot to run, starting around 10am. So you'd think that the easy answer would be to run either after the sun has set or before the sun rises. Ha! Nice try. The one benefit that the strong sun provides is burning off the humidity. The humidity then builds overnight until the air is pretty much saturated (levels in the upper 90s). This cycle repeats from May-ish to late October-ish -- or early November-ish if you are really lucky. In other words, this is half your year.

High dew point tells you just how close the actual air is to becoming dew. If the dew point and temperature match, then there are ungodly amounts of water in the air. I often like to check in with Wikipedia to see how we're doing, dew-point-wise. For the run I did on Saturday, the dew point was 78F. According to Wikipedia, that is, "Extremely uncomfortable, fairly oppressive." Still better than 80F or above, which is, "Severely high. Even deadly for asthma-related illnesses" -- but only 2 degrees better. The real problem, if you are running, is that the high humidity and dew point mean that you sweat, but it doesn't evaporate. So you don't actually cool off, even if the temperatures are somewhat manageable (by which I mean in the upper 70s/low 80s. When I lived in Massachusetts, I used to complain when temperatures got into the upper 70s and I went out to run. Memories).

In my first attempts at running outside in 2007, I thought that I would adapt to the climate. And I did to a point: when I began, I couldn't even make it 2 miles without having to stop (and thinking I might die). I took the sunset approach, which was unwise because the heat and everything did not dissipate just because the strong sun wasn't there any more. Also, you risked potential thunderstorms that can happen daily. But I still didn't fully adapt. Actually, I often wonder if anyone does, the conditions are just horrid. For much of the summer, I have been aquajogging instead, which is where you have a buoyant water belt and jog in the pool -- I highly recommend, even though it instantly makes you look like you are retired. But it's a nice activity with the added bonus that you can dip your head in any time you get hot.

The current temperature (4:46pm) is 95F, the RealFeel temperature is 109F. Humidity is 77% and the dew point is 77F. I need to find a way to meet this challenge, but I can't say that I am looking forward to it.