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!

Another 8 miles down

Today's long run was another 8 miles as a slight taper from last week.  Next week is 10, then I leap to 12 after that.  I was a bit concerned that 8 miles was going to be my cursed distance, particularly after the last 8 miles and because the weather today was back in the hot/humid range.  I remember that during the summer of 2007, 6 miles was my cursed distance.  Every time I tried to run 6 miles, something went wrong, like it got too hot or something (honestly, I can't remember what the other ones were now, but for some reason my 6-mile runs just never quite went well).  But today wasn't so bad.  The start of the run was overcast at least this time and once the sun was up, things were okay as long as I stayed in the shade.  Fortunately, much of where I run is shady, so it wasn't such a major issue.  Things were less fun in the sunny parts -- particularly at the point where I turned around to go back today, which is a double whammy since it is sunny and up a Florida hill.  However, it was still not awful.

I am pretty knocked out today, though, more than I usually am on Sunday.  I'm not sure if that is from running too hard or from the weather change, but I'm glad that tomorrow is a day off.  A well-earned day off no less.  Probably the lesson here is to not run so fast in heat, but hey, at least I am still trying!

Zoo Run Run

This morning, I ran the 'Zoo Run Run' 5k at the Lowry Park Zoo.  I did a zoo run a few years ago as part of an arthritis fundraiser and enjoyed the experience.  Today's run was less fun, first off because there were probably 2000 people there.  No joke.  Bib numbers went up to 2000 and I didn't see any gaps in the numbers.  Plus they had registration on the day of the race.  Then everyone had to get chip timers...which seemed kind of dumb because there is no possible way that anyone is setting any personal records at a zoo run due to the fact that there are a lot of curves that one needs to negotiate.  In fact, the whole operation got so convoluted that they had to start the run a few (maybe 10) minutes late.  Then they didn't actually chip time because you didn't step over a chip time mat at the start, only at the finish line -- and there was a delay in the start because the race did get congested.  So I'm not sure what the point was of the chip timers at all.  But I digress.

One major complaint I have with races in Florida: get people to line up according to mile splits!  I've never once seen that happen here.  As a result, you get all kinds of paces out of the gate, which is especially annoying when it is a narrow course as it is at the zoo.  I don't want to take out any other runners, but am sometimes forced to when slow walkers are walking across the course in a group of three or more near the front.  If you are a slow walker, that is great.  I'm thrilled that you are out and exercising.  However, please be at the back of the race or minimally, do not walk three abreast across the whole pathway!  But I digress again.

You remember how the weather was getting better?  Well, it's officially worse again -- and just in time for tomorrow's long run (joy).  It was around the normal ick this morning: 78F, humidity 84%, dew point 73F.  In you're keeping track, yes that is barely across the Threshold of Ick since temp + humidity = more than 160.  It doesn't matter that it was only two over 160.  That is still too much. 

When I hit mile 2, I was annoyed because I wanted to run faster and couldn't.  It is a super irritating feeling!  But something (likely the Threshold of Ick) held me back.  Someday, someday, I will be able to run.  By which I mean, 'in two weeks when I go to California.'  Stay tuned. 

Bad part of California: I've heard that there are hills...

Good part of today's run: the zoo had hills, Florida-style (so not really, but there were inclines and declines).  And I definitely ran them better than the majority of the other people out there.  Nice to know that 'hill training' is paying off, even if I am only equipped for zoo-level hills!

Too fast. But oh so good.

I wanted to go running this morning and partake in more of that fantastic weather.  Instead, I woke up at 7:30am when the alarm went off, felt like someone clobbered me with a 2 x 4, and realized what I really needed was sleep.  I am a big fan of the 'let your body dictate what you do' school of thought (within reason, of course).  The nature of my job causes me to sometimes feel much like someone clobbered me with a 2 x 4 -- Thursdays are especially bad this semester (because Wednesdays are especially long and intense).  When I can take advantage of gaining more sleep in that situation, it's my preferred solution.

I did run tonight, though, heading out around 6:30pm.  Remember a few weeks ago when the evenings seemed so much better than the mornings?  Well, provided that this morning was as nice as Tuesday, that situation would appear to have reversed itself.  The good news is that it didn't rain/storm/downpour and I did go running.  So that's all that really matters in the end.

This run was that mysterious '4M, 3 x 2:00AI' one that I was supposed to do on Tuesday.  Turns out that AI means 'aerobic intensity,' meaning that you should step up your run for a 2-minute interval.  You then recover, and run another one.  So that is what I did.  Although I think I went too hard, because the last one especially turned into more of an anaerobic interval.

Your heart rate is anaerobic when you get into that zone they always show as the 'danger zone' on those heart rate charts found on cardio machines.  Probably, you don't actually want to be anaerobic for all that long under normal circumstances, but some sports require it, such as rowing.  Part of the problem for me tonight was that it was still hot and humid, so my heart rate was already faster than usual.  Definitely, I should have slowed down.  I was even telling myself to slow down during the last AI, particularly in the last thirty seconds.

But....but....but....sometimes it is just too hard to slow down!  It's nice, even when marathon training, to feel every once in a while like you can still run fast.  I got a glimpse of that on Tuesday.  I had more of a glimpse tonight.  The actual time on those intervals wasn't particularly great (11-minute miles), but bear in mind that these were in 89F weather with 50% humidity (and 69F dew point, in case you've become obsessed with that stat like I have).  That is not bad at all.  In fact, if I use the Jeff Galloway system of computing miles in icky weather (and he does live in Florida), that turns into 8-minute miles -- the system being add 30 seconds for every 5 degrees over 60F.  Now, I know that this is exaggerating because I feel really confident that I couldn't sustain that pace even for two minutes, but a girl can dream.

Next time, I know I need to take it slower.  For today, though, I was going fast again even if, like when Ricky Bobby said it, I wasn't really.

4 miles of awesome!

Today's run had actually pretty good conditions.  It was 67F when I started.  Did you read that?  It was below 70F.  This is exciting stuff for me!  And it didn't really warm up all that much while I was running.  It was absolutely delightful, albeit still humid (85%).

I've developed some good strength in my legs.  Unfortunately, I don't think that I'm using it to its full potential most days because I'm worried about overheating.  Even today, it was a challenge to get myself to run faster because I think that my body was concerned about what was coming up next.  I once read an article in Runner's World that showed how people who trained with running had bodies that would adapt to conditions and figure out the best pace.  Your body does this automatically after some training.  Isn't that amazing?  Anyway, I think that my brain is now convinced that it needs to hold back the pace because it will inevitably heat up by 5F while I am out.  That's okay, but on days like today, when it is cooler, it would be nice to just fly.  However, I'm also trying to remember that in the big picture, it is not about flying, it is about finishing.  Slow doesn't matter.  If I want to work on speed, then I should aim for a smaller distance.  I will say, though, that in the last 0.1 mile, I was pretty amazed by just how much power I had.  Pretty awesome.

I had a 9:30 appointment, so I had to go relatively early.  Today's run was supposed to be -- and I am quoting from my schedule here -- '4M, 3 x 2:00 AI.'  The problem is that I forgot what 'AI' stands for in this situation (although I would imagine stepping up the pace).  Before heading out, I meant to check in the book that I am using to train, but I forgot and decided instead to just go and run four miles.  Thursday's run was supposed to be 4M, so I shall just substitute.

I circled around my neighborhood, which is not the same as the golf course neighborhood located across the street.  However, it still has its nice points.  For instance, there is the Big Pond and the Little Pond.  Both are connected to the Hillsborough River, which is the main waterway around these parts.  The Big Pond was especially nice this morning as the sun was just rising and the sky was pinkish.  I didn't get a picture of this, but I did get one later of the pond:

Now imagine this with wisps of mist and a pinkish sky, and that's pretty much what I saw this morning.

If you are not from Florida, then you are probably wondering if there are alligators in this pond.  If you are from Florida, then you are probably wondering where the alligators are in this pond.  There are plenty of them, including some pretty big ones.  However, I did not see any today.  Here is a stock photo (taken from my personal collection) of an alligator in the Big Pond from earlier this year:

Actual alligator in Big Pond.

The Little Pond is actually attached to the Big Pond.  It is linked with tunnels that go under the road (the road bifurcates the Big and Little Ponds).  What I especially like about the Little Pond is that I can see it from my window when I am working from home.  Pretty sweet view!  Anyway, here is the Little Pond:

The Little Pond.  Still not bad.

If you're curious, yes there are also alligators in the Little Pond.  This was the pond in which I saw one a couple of weeks ago.

Modular Homes of the Future!

Today's run, 9 miles, was actually quite nice.  The temperature was in the low 70s to start and as long as I stayed in the shade, it was fine all the way through.  Nice change!  Here's hoping that it doesn't get hot and icky again (I can always dream).

Yesterday was a day off and I took a pass on the gym.  My legs are feeling a bit tired, so I thought that this was for the best.  However, I did move a couch, so I can pretend like that was exercise, despite the fact that it was not a heavy couch and I had help.

I took some more photos today and am calling this collection Modular Homes of the Future!  These are mostly from Riverhills Drive again.  I chose them because they look like they were designed in the 1960s to look like futuristic homes.  Actually, some of these homes were designed by semi-famous architects (I am not an expert, so I'm not sure on these points) and are part of the Mid-Century modern movement, but I have no idea if it is these specific homes.  Anyway, enjoy!

This is the quintessential Modular Home of the Future in my view.

Does this remind anyone else of a fort?

I've noticed that several Modular Homes of the Future hide their modularness through flora.

This one seems more Floridian, somehow.  Maybe because of the lighter color?

This one is more like a Modular Home of the Bayou

I think that this one is the most imposing of the Modular Homes of the Future.

Modular Home of the Future: Now With Silver Metallic Door!

This last one is not a Modular Home of the Future but rather a Weird Retro Home of the Past (and I didn't actually run by it today, but I did recently and felt that it was noteworthy):

Reflection on Sunday's run. Yes, I'm still doing that.

When I looked at the weather conditions this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the dew point was 69F at the start of my run.  Can you imagine?  According to Wikipedia, that is only "somewhat uncomfortable for most people at the upper edge" (the range being 65-69F).  Only somewhat uncomfortable!  How awesome is that?

I got thinking about Sunday's run again.  Truth be told, I've been thinking quite a lot about Sunday's horror run.  For instance, on Monday night, I expressed displeasure to two friends that I had to run again after the torture that was Sunday's run.  But I'm trying to put a more positive spin on it.  Sunday's run was probably as bad as it gets.  The heat index is not usually so disgusting that early in the morning, even in Florida.  As a comparison, Accuweather had the heat index at 106F on Sunday around 10am.  This morning it was 92F at 10am.  Still not ideal conditions, but a significant improvement.

If Sunday was as bad as it will probably get, then  I'm okay because I still did it.  I still finished my 8 miles.  I was slow but this apparently doesn't matter.  It wasn't enjoyable, it wasn't fun, and it certainly was not something that I want to repeat any time soon.  But I didn't quit.  I didn't give up.  I didn't walk.  I didn't stop running.  And that is the lesson to be learned here.  Chalk it up to more mental toughness development.

That's better!

For some unknown reason, this morning's run was significantly better than Sunday's.  Perhaps it was because it was only half the distance (4 miles with some running up 'hills').  Perhaps it was because there was a 5 mph breeze from the ENE to alleviate the icky.  But mostly I think that it was because the RealFeel temperature was in the low 90s instead of the upper 90s/low 100s.  I was concerned yesterday because initial forecasts were saying that the high today would be 96F, which is freaking hot for Florida.  However, it appears that this has been revised to a much more tolerable 93F.  And I am not exactly chomping at the bit to go in Sunday conditions again any time soon.  Or ever, if possible.

It was still sweaty, though.  I could not believe just how much so when I looked in the mirror upon my return.  Despite this, I did have a little more spring in my step and even felt pretty good at the end.  My time was also around 2 minutes faster per mile than Sunday.  This weather, I swear.  It's insane!

Today is an exciting day as well because I am getting a massage.  Hurray!  I go to a place on the other side of town called Carrollwood Massage Therapy that does an excellent job.  I wish that I could go more often, but my plan is to try and get a massage once a month during the training.  Between that and football being back, this week is getting better, post-Sunday run!

And hot. It's also still hot.

If you're curious, there was no blog entry yesterday because I didn't run.  My training schedule has a day off every few weeks and yesterday was one of them.  I didn't set the alarm and got to sleep in (okay, not really, it was to 9:30am, but that is still better than nothing!).  Twice in one week with no alarms.  That won't be happening again for a while.

Yesterday was a major day in college football around these parts because the University of South Florida (here in Tampa) played the University of Florida for the first time.  Now unless you live under a rock or are completely oblivious to college football, you likely are aware that UF is a pretty good team -- there is a lot more that could be said on this point, especially since a bunch of their major players graduated, but let's leave it at that.  USF was ranked #2 back in 2007 and hasn't yet cracked the rankings this year.  I only mention this because I watched this historic game yesterday (UF trounced USF) and could not help but take notice of a comment that recurred several times from the announcers: it was hot.  It was hotter than any of them remembered it being in the Swamp during game day (UF plays in a stadium called The Swamp).  They even consulted some of the people who had been covering Swamp football for 30 years and they thought that it was abnormally hot.  And let me tell you, that hot carried on this morning.

My run was much, much slower than I would want it to be, but I can definitely see why.  I looked at the graph showing my time and there was a very clear deceleration that occurred during the second half of my run.  Why?  Because today there was no good answer.  It was humid to start, hot as I went, and no cloud cover whatsoever to shield Mr. Florida 'Freaking Hot' Sun.  The heat index at the end was 92F according to the National Weather Service.  Accuweather put that at 106F.  Let's average those two: 99F.  Still horrid.

Oh, and in the 'you can't win' department, the humidity was 94% when I started.  COME ON!  At no time did the magic number of humidity plus temperature dip below 160.  Not once.  Dew point, you may ask?  Between 75-77F.  Looking back on these numbers, I can't believe I got through the run.

But hey, I persevered.  For 8 whole miles.  Liked the miles in the shade far more than the ones in the sun.  And let me tell you, by the end of the run, quite a few of those were in the sun.

I'm awfully glad that I changed a few hydrating/fueling strategies for today's run or else I might not have made all 8 miles.  First, I managed to do a route that took me past a drinking fountain in one of the parks around the 4-mile mark.  Good plan because I was almost out of water by that point.  Also, unlike most runs, I brought a little mini-Clif Bar today.  You are supposed to refuel somehow for every hour that you are out (or something like that).  I'm pretty sure that the Clif Bar helped.  Plus it's small enough that it wasn't hard to bring with me stashed away in one of the pockets on my water holder.  I need to experiment more with refueling since the actual marathon will require a strategy.  Here's hoping that sport jellybeans will work.

If you're wondering, I don't drink Gatorade because it upsets my stomach.  Gatorade, as you probably know, originated at UF because people were keeling over from the heat and ick in The Swamp.  However, there are alternatives to Gatorade that I have used in the past and let me tell you, around 5 miles I was making plans to go and find some of those ASAP.

The post-run this week, though, is a happy time.  First, I went and got a chocolate milk.  This is the best recharging liquid known to man.  Seriously.  No one is quite sure why.  But who am I to complain if I get to have a chocolate milk?  Second, unless you live under a TV-free rock, you are likely aware that this is the first Sunday of NFL football.  NFL football is one of my absolute favorite things in the whole wide world, hands down.  Plus I get to watch with friends.  Plus we are going to a place that has whole-wheat pizza.  And you bet that I have earned that puppy today!

I know, I know, even I have gone on about how when you run, you still need to watch your diet.  And in general, I am good about watching the diet.  However, my body is already kicking up into high hunger gear, even on days when I am not running, so I need to be sure to fuel properly.  Last night's dinner, for instance, was tofu with bean/spinach salad and wild rice.  Can't feel too bad about that.  Now it is time for some pizza and some FOOTBALL!

Hey, guess what? It's still humid!

I suppose that AM humid is still better than PM hot, but in all honestly, I'd rather avoid either.  Today was 6 miles (whoo!  Not 4!).  Instead of going over to the golf course neighborhood, I went over to Stephanie and David's instead.  No RSE, but I did hear the dogs in the house.  Also, the woman with the chihuahuas in the bicycle basket was out this morning too.  Not sure if she recognized me.

She did say hi, but that's because pretty much everyone in Florida says hi to you when you run.  I even had people wave hi from inside vehicles.  This ain't MA on the friendliness quotient, I can promise you that much.

It was a relatively nice day, I just would have preferred less humidity.  But what can you do?  At least the sun was not horrible.  And I remembered to put out the garbage!

According to the schedule,  I am supposed to run a 5k on Saturday, September 25.  I was hoping to be able to do the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Ranch Run, which takes place in the golf course neighborhood, but it's too early this year.  However, I found a pretty good race instead: the Lowry Park Zoo's Zoo Run Run.  I get to run around the zoo!   And I get free admission for the rest of the day.  From my experience running around the zoo is not the best course for a PR since you wind up running around a lot of tight corners that cost you time.  A couple of years ago, I did a number of 5ks throughout the fall and was down to about a 10:40 mile split.  The zoo run, in contrast, I had an 11:45.  However, I got to run around and look at the animals, which is much, much more fun than a run could be otherwise.  Zoo Run Run it is!

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.

More Riverhills Drive

Sunday is run day!  Yes, that's right, it was the long run this morning, which was 7 miles.  Slightly longer than last week so I added to my route.  I did the hill street then back (~2 miles total), down Riverhills (~4 miles total), and added on a bit at the end which took me past the golf club (~1 mile).  As I was heading to the golf club, I was nearly hit by two retirees in a golf cart who were driving on the sidewalk.  Welcome to Florida.  I don't think any single moment has summed it up more succinctly.

Today was not nearly as humid as last week, but still not the awesome conditions of Tuesday.  Ah well.  You need some runs that will stick out as amazing, right?  If all of them were like that, they would just get boring (not really, but allow me to live in my fantasy world).

After the run, I went around and got a few more pictures.  Still no 18th-hole-epiphanies like Billy Graham.  Here are some of the favorite houses from today, with the added bonus that you can see the power of Mr. Florida Sun:

That porch up top kills me.  No idea what purpose it could serve, except it might be fun as a place to hang out during parties.

Good that it does not snow here with that roof.  Notice power of Mr. Florida Sun.

This house really caught my attention today.  I like the trees in the front too.

This house has a whole lot of stuff going on.  There is also a gazebo off to the left that I couldn't fit in the frame.  Rock the casbah!

And my favorite yard of the morning:

Flamingos on parade!

I think I'm getting the Mr. Florida Sun thing from when I did sailing as a kid and they used to always refer to the wind as 'Mr. Wind.'  As in, 'when Mr. Wind comes at you from this angle, it is to your maximum advantage to have your sails at this angle.'

Dog-sitting

I'm dog-sitting for Stephanie and David (of the Random Stephanie Encounters fame), which is always fun.  They have two whippet mixes who are very well behaved and fun dogs.  Last night, we all hung out on the couch that the dogs are allowed to it on and they blatantly ignored scary-sounding animals barking (or something!) outside.

Random fact: Florida has coyotes.

What dose this have to do with running?  You can't sleep in too late when you dog-sit because the dogs will let you know when it is time to get up.  They are crated at night, but one gets pretty active if you aren't up around 7am.  So I knew that this would be helpful for going relatively early.  The weather this morning at 7:15am was absolutely beautiful...but I couldn't go running yet because I had to feed the dogs, then take them out.  Ah well.  They found an absolutely enormous caterpillar in the back yard.  Disturbingly big.

I did finally get out around 8am, which wasn't so bad.  Today was 4 miles again.  If you feel like I'm always running 4 miles, actually that's exactly how I'm starting to feel.  I'm sure that it will vary soon enough.  The run was just me circling around Stephanie and David's neighborhood.  I had to do a bit of backtracking at one point, but for the most part there were enough streets to get through the 4 miles without repeats.

I kept passing a couple that has two small chihuahuas.  I've seen this couple before: they take a baby stroller with them, presumably in case the dogs get tired.  As I was on the very last part of my run (I think 3.8 miles in or something), I passed the woman for a third time -- she was actually now biking around the neighborhood with her dogs in the bike basket.  She looked at me and said, 'You're good!'  Always nice to get random encouragement from strangers.  Actually, I felt pretty good through the end because it was shady and I still had a little oomph in my step.  Nice change from some days!

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.