Challenge Week #2

Back in August -- back when 5 miles was my long run for the week but it was really freaking hot -- I instituted a policy that during challenging weeks, I would acknowledge them as such and take the challenges in stride.  Sure, things might not go as planned.  But it was important to have faith that things would turn out okay.  With that concept in mind, I am hereby declaring this week Challenge Week #2 since three out of this week's four runs have not been fun.  Unlike Challenge Week #1, which was primarily about scheduling runs around meetings, this time around, the challenges are being posed in different ways:

1. The weather.  Tuesday and Thursday were too hot and humid and ick.  Luckily, here we are on Saturday and the weather has cooled to a reasonable degree.  It still got up to 85F today.  But the humidity was much lower (~50%) and the dew point manageable (around 60F) when I went for my run around 6pm.  Side note: As I ran, I was thinking to myself that probably if I ever move from Florida and have to go running in such conditions, I will probably post something as my Facebook status that says, 'How did I ever do this on a regular basis?!??!!!!?!?'
2. My stomach.  Today my stomach was not happy running.  Not one bit.  For about the first mile or so, my stomach hurt on the right side.  Then there was around half a mile that was fine, after which the pain moved to my left side.  Another break, then there was a kind of dull pain that was lower and across my stomach.  By this point, I was around three-quarters of the way through.  Today's run was also 5 miles with three aerobic intervals, so that was just awesome all around.  It did help me keep them at a reasonable pace, though.

I came super close to quitting today, or only running half and adding the remaining miles tomorrow, or adding the sprints tomorrow, or something.  Unfortunately, I couldn't go this morning because I was volunteering for something and had to be there early.  I think that the real problem with my stomach was that I ate too soon before running, but generally this is not a huge problem (and I did leave an hour and a half in between).  Oh well.  It's done now.

One thing that pushed me through was remembering what was probably my absolute worst race to date.  I had food poisoning and still ran (it was a 5k).  Adding insult to injury was the fact that I lived in Worcester, MA -- city of seven hills -- and had to walk over a very big hill (some might say killah) to get to the run.  Which was dumb.  Because you don't want to have to walk over a very big hill to get to a run.  Naturally, I also had to walk back afterward, at which point it started raining.  Once I got home, I went straight to bed, having given up on that day completely.  But what I do remember is somehow finding my way through that run and the fact that I didn't die trying.  One of my exercise rules is that while you might think you are going to die at times, you probably won't.  It's nice to know that however miserable that day (and it was miserable), I can still take something from the experience.

I guess it's good for mental toughness?

It remains hot.  Today it got up to 90F.  That is, in fact, summer weather.  And the humidity this morning was in the ick range of 90%.  I looked at the prediction last night and decided that I would risk running later.  This was a gamble because there were clouds gathering and some of them looked pretty scary -- not quite on par with the photos from a few weeks ago, but still a bit ominous.  As I got started, I heard some distant thunder, but that was the only trace of an actual storm during the run, apart from a few sudden wind gusts.  I decided to run anyway and knock off one of the two 5-milers that need to be done.  One of them has sprints in it.  I saved that one for the weekend.  Here's hoping that the 'cold front' is passing through tonight and getting rid of some of this weather.

I didn't take my phone for a few reasons:

• I feared inclement weather
• There is a really convenient 5M run that doesn't require the phone (you run down some streets, around, up a street, then back.  Trust me, it's easy in practice)
• I didn't want to get going too fast.  Rational Me knows that when it is hot, your body needs to slow down.  Rational Me can look at mile split times when she gets back and understand that she was slow because of weather conditions (Rational Me is also a big fan of AccuWeather).  However, Rational Me is not the one that typically goes running....well, that's obvious, because Rational Me probably thinks that this whole marathon idea is nuts.  Irrational Me, on the other hand, gets frustrated because the mile splits are too slow, weather be damned.  Tonight, I didn't feel like dealing with Irrational Me.  So the timing devices (phone and watch) stayed at home.

I also left my visor at home, but that was more because I figured that I wouldn't need it with the sun setting.

Again, it was not an enjoyable 5M, nowhere near as easy as the ones I was running in previous weeks.  But I did it and that's what matters.  As I was running, I thought to myself that I should probably be grateful that the weather hasn't been like this for all of October and that it was actually reasonable by Florida standards.  I'm sure that, had the weather been summer-hot all month, I would still have run.  But it would have been nasty.  So I'm glad that there was some respite.

Plus this all goes in to the 'mental toughness' category.  It would have been really, really easy to skip tonight's run.  It would have been really, really easy to cut tonight's run short because of a possible storm.  But I didn't.  Truth be told, it wasn't physically so bad -- 5 miles is still a lot less than most recent running days.  However, I am still sweaty and my head hurts, so it could have been much better.

Come on COLD FRONT!

Sometimes I really hate you, Florida

It's official: it got hot again.  Record-breaking heat, in fact.  Today it got up to 91F in Tampa.  That would be summer weather, except that it is very slightly less humid.  But not really.

This is just unfair.  It's a taper week for me, meaning that my mileage is spread out over 4 days of shorter runs.  I was really looking forward to this because shorter runs generally feel much faster than normal.  In fact, today's run was only 4 miles.  Can you imagine?  I ran three times that plus two more miles on Sunday.

Instead, 4 miles turned out to be very painful indeed because it got hot again.  BOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

(I mean, I guess it could be worse since up north it is snowing and everything.  But I don't care because I feel like whining about my weather situation.)

Anyway, unable to bear the thought of running in summer morning conditions, I decided to take a gamble on the weather and go for the nighttime instead.  Of course, this also added the challenge of running before it got dark since the sun now goes down at 5pm or something.  Okay, not really.  The sun never goes down at 5pm here.  I'm thinking back to Boston.  But it does go down much earlier and by the time I was wrapping up the run at 7:30pm-ish, it was definitely dark.

Meh, no alligators crawled out of the darkened sewer and got me, so whatever.

(If you're curious, yes, I was traumatized by Stephen King's It at an impressionable age).

It was still not quite at the 160 threshold of ick.  But again, it was far too close to the 150 threshold of ick, perhaps even surpassing it on the way to 160.  Come on!  It's late October!  This should be over by now.

Oh, the dew point?  Lower 70s.  To cite my favorite Wikipedia page on the topic yet again, 'Very humid, quite uncomfortable.'  And this was at 6pm today. 

It could have been worse, though.  This morning the dew point was 72F, the humidity 90%, and the temperature 75F, which means that yes, we did surpass the threshold of ick.  So at least I made the right decision by waiting.  I guess.  But I'm still too sweaty and tired. 

Blech.  Just blech.

The long runs get long

Today was 14 miles.  I ran 14 miles. 14 miles is the longest distance I have ever run in one go, beating out my previous record of 13.1 miles by 0.9.  Exciting!  This is a training plan with no room for a feel-good, pat yourself on the back, you made it half way 13 mile run, apparently.  Instead, you crank right through the halfway point and on to 14.  Half and then a little bit.

(It seems crazy that this was just short of half, it really felt very long).

It got hot and muggy again today.  Not quite at summer levels, but also not quite what I would ideally want while running.  The combined temperature + humidity was closer to 150 than 160, but 150 is still rather high.  Certainly by the end, the sun felt like it was beating down perhaps a little too much.  Also, I was insanely thirsty as I was nearing the final part.  Water was my friend today.  I took a water bottle of the healthy Gatorade that I usually drink, then refilled the bottle with water around mile 8 (this was, of course, my trusty fanny pack running belt).  This was not quite enough, but I still made it through.

Here's the weird thing: my mile splits were faster than last week's 12-mile run in better conditions.  Not better by much, but still better.  No idea how that happened.

Today I also developed a new strategy with regard to counting down miles.  Usually, I count down every 10%, but today I decided that waiting for 1.4 miles felt too long.  Instead, I focused on 5%, so only 0.7.  I liked this approach and will keep it up for the marathon, I think.  If I run with my phone.  Which is not a given at this point seeing as how I don't think the battery will last.  I did develop a save-battery strategy today, which is to power it down during boring stretches when I don't actually need to know how much distance is left.  I think that this might work well.  12 miles was pushing the upper limit of the battery, apparently.

Another new trick today was taking running jelly beans (technically, they are called sports beans).  I had the chance to stop by my local running store yesterday and picked some packages up.  Two came with me on the run today.  They are awesome.  Not only do you get fuel while running, they also provide a jolt of caffeine.  And they do taste like jelly beans.  Best invention ever (at least it is the best invention for long-distance running that I know about!).

8 miles doesn't seem so bad either...kind of

You've probably noticed that the running distances have fallen into another routine: 5M on Tuesday, 7-8M on Thursday, long run on Sunday.  It's kind of nice, actually (and is one of the Plans of this training guide, to help get you accustomed to what is coming up ahead).  Next week is different because it's a taper week, then on to the last crunch of building mileage.  The marathon is less than two months away, if you can imagine!  I can't.

Today's run felt pretty good while I was running.  Now that I'm done, I can definitely feel that it was, indeed, 8 miles.  It was a little more humid than I might have wanted in a perfect world, but overall not too bad.  I chose to circle around Stephanie and David's neighborhood, then loop back toward mine.  There was not a lot of repetition with this route.

It seems weird, but encouraging, that 8 miles doesn't feel that long right now.  Here's hoping that's what 12 miles feels like in a month.

They do go fast, these 5 miles

Today was yet another 5-mile Tuesday, except instead of hills, it was a run with 'aerobic intensity' parts.  This time around, it was 3 intervals of 3:00 each.  I was much better this time with staying at a reasonable pace and didn't feel like I was almost going to die at any point in the run.  This is progress.  Starting yesterday, I kept reminding myself that it was important to stay in control of intervals.  Yeah, I'm a bit eccentric that way, but hey, it worked.

The nice thing about having a 5-mile run after a long Sunday run is that the 5 miles feels like it takes no time at all.  Today, I was already at the 2.5 mile mark, then realized, 'Wow, this thing is half-way over.'  Also, I have apparently developed the ability to deceive myself with the weather.  I thought that it was nice out.  Then I got home and realized I was drenched in sweat.  They call this adjusting, I guess.

Something weird that I've been noticing over the past few runs: I keep getting a side stitch in my left, generally around the 1-mile mark.  No idea why.  It could be from knots in my back.  Last summer, I had awful knots that would manifest themselves when I was running, then radiate from the back to my collarbone and front.  It was not pleasant.  Luckily, a series of massages fixed that right up and I haven't had the same problems (also, I was running on a treadmill a lot, so my stride was somewhat compromised because I had to stay in a restricted space).  I'm going in for a massage next week, so if it is the knots, hopefully that will go away.  Alternatively, it's just a plain old side stitch.  Various sources on the internet tell me to breathe deeply.  That seemed to work fine today, but it is kind of annoying.

12-mile redo

Today was the long run and for the second straight week, it was 12 miles.  This repetition was kind of nice seeing as how last week's 12-mile run was not all that much fun.  In some ways, I am really spoiled running here.  The neighborhood is quiet, I don't have to worry about traffic or people, and I can pretty easily find routes that provide enough distance.  These are not opportunities that I enjoyed last week in San Francisco.  As a result, the run was overall more peaceful and I felt pretty good about it overall.  It's weird: two weeks ago, I felt wiped out from a 10-mile run.  This week, 12 miles felt fine (okay, I'm tired now and somewhat stiff, but not as bad as I felt after the 10 mile).  Next week is 14 miles, which technically I did last week in California if you could the 2-mile walk I had to do to get to the ferry.  So that's a good sign!

I caved and bought the 'hydration belt:'

Yes, it is essentially a glorified fanny pack.  But it is awfully convenient for carrying around a water bottle without having to keep it in my hand (like I did with my other one).  Plus I can put my Mini Clif Bars in that pocket, then easily access them during the run.  So yeah.  Form before fashion in this case.

At first, I thought that I would not be able to get it around my hips.  My hips are rather wide and you needed to length the strap by letting out extra part in a way that was not clear.  I was thinking that 'Too Fat for my Running Fanny Pack' would be a great name for a blog, but was more relieved that this was not, in fact, the case.

The actual run was more of the same: circling around the same basic area in the golf course area.  Weather remains remarkably enjoyable for Florida.  Even running in the sun near the end of the run was not all that killer.  This is a very nice change from a month ago!

Halloween Decorations: updated

Today's run was 8 miles and I decided to go through Stephanie and David's neighborhood.  It took a bit of looping around, but I ran around there twice, then back to my neighborhood and added on a teeny bit at the end.  Booyah, 8 miles.  And the weather was not awful.  I was a bit concerned because it is more hot and humid today than it has been a while.  Tonight it should cool off again.  A friend at work said that it might get down to 54F tonight.  Whoa.

The most fun part of my run was meeting a little dog named Chrissy today.  Chrissy was supposed to follow her owner back to the house and didn't, so instead we hung out for a bit.  I figured that being a tiny dog, maybe Chrissy would not want to finish another 2 miles with me.  Then she went back inside.  Also, I saw a dog in a bike basket today.  Only one.  I think that it was a different person.  So apparently taking your dog around in a bike basket is trendy in this neighborhood.

On to the Halloween decorations:

I'm not sure that fake spiderweb on the shrubs is that good a look.

Like I said, this neighborhood is in the Halloween spirit!

This would be a lot of fun if you were a kid, I think.

I'm not sure that I would want a large, fake spider on my porch in Florida.  Too similar to a large, real spider.

This is actually at the house that was featured last time.  A later add.  I wonder if they also put it up for Gasparilla, Tampa's local pirate festival.

These next few photos are all taken from the same place.  Remember the house with the ghost link fence from last time?  They've expanded a bit.

This is *just* the driveway.

The whole yard.

Close-up of the ghosts out front.

For the final picture, I have included a yard that is not in any way decorated for Halloween but would be the perfect setting for some kind of Southern horror story, I think:

That swing is spooky!

5 mile hill course = piece of cake!

Today was another one of the 5 miles with hills (ha!) run and I did the same course that I've run the past few Tuesdays.  I was very tired this morning due to California (still!), so I decided to go later.  It hasn't rained in weeks.  *Weeks*!  Plus it continues to be cooler.  I can't help but think that these two things are related.  Since there was no rain in the forecast, I figured I was safe and yes, there was no scary Florida weather.  Somewhat pleasant, in fact, considering it was still in the 80s, but it was the low 80s with the sun setting.

It's getting dark early.  Already by 7:30pm, the sun had set.  Oh well, that will change in a few weeks with Daylight Savings...which I am not looking forward to, since I will have to get up even earlier to run!

The first half of today was not the most fun run I have ever done.  I felt like I had done a long run one day, then sat on a cramped airplane the next day for an extended amount of time.  Likely, this feeling stemmed from the fact that that is how I spent my Saturday and Sunday.  There were definitely a lot of creaky, weird things to start.  I was reminded of one of my favorite running books, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami.  It is a collection of random musings about running by someone who has been doing it for a quarter of a century (and writing novels when he isn't running).  Also, he spends a lot of time running by the Charles River since he was in Cambridge when he wrote this book.  It made me want to lace up my shoes and go straight back to Boston when I first read it -- I was in Florida at the time.  Anyway, one of my favorite parts concerns an interview that Murakami does with Toshihiko Seko, an Olympic runner.  Murakami asks if there are ever days when a runner 'at your level ever feel[s] like you'd rather not run today?'  Seko looks at him as though he is insane and responds, 'Of course!  All the time!'  [I'm not citing from the actual book here, so I don't have the page number, but an excerpt was in the New Yorker and this was on 77 of the June 9 & 16, 2008 issue].  I had quite a bit of this today at the start of my run since I felt vaguely like I was trudging through mud or something.  My legs were definitely not feeling it.  However, once I settled into it, things went fine.  Very well, in fact.  The final two miles felt very good.

It's funny how 5 miles now seems easy.  Back in August, these were my 'long runs,' after all.  Not sure if longer distances, such as 10 miles, will ever feel like this.  Here is hoping.

I was in the golf course neighborhood.  Looks like Halloween decorations are going up slowly but surely.  However, Stephanie and David's neighborhood still takes the cake.  Don't worry, I haven't forgotten and there will be photos this week.

The Best-Laid Plans

I did my long run today since I am flying back to Florida tomorrow (as a reminder, I am in California).  When I realized that I would have to coordinate a long run in California, I came up with a plan:

1) Wake up in time to leave for 8:30am in order to walk 1.6 miles for 9:10am ferry to San Francisco (I'm staying in Alameda).
1.5) Pick up a water en route to take on my run.
2) Run by the water in San Francisco.  Run 6 miles in one direction, then turn around and return.
3) Eat well-earned dim sum in Chinatown.

Oh wow, did things ever not happen that way.

Surprise #1: I checked the weather and it was 56F out.  That is an absolutely fantastic temperature for running, but I was concerned that it might not be as nice on a ferry.  So I wanted to take a sweater, but could not find a good way of doing this.  I chose a cotton t-shirt and then took my sweater with me, wearing it fashionably wrapped around my waist while running.  Really.  It's a wool sweater.  Not a very good real runner look.

The next surprise occurred when I started walking toward the ferry.  I opted for a leisurely walk pace, leaving what I thought was plenty of time to get from my hotel to the ferry stop.  I grew quite confused when it was 8:55am and I still had a mile to go.  Turns out that the actual distance was not 1.6 miles -- that was just one part of the walk.  The actual distance was 2.2 miles.  I didn't make it for the 9:10am ferry. And trust me, this place is in the middle of nowhere, Alameda.  There weren't even any places on the way to get a water.

Fortunately for me, it is Fleet Week in San Francisco.  Or, as you will soon learn, unfortunately for me, it is Fleet Week in San Francisco.  The good part of Fleet Week is that there are more ferries.  The bad news is that everyone and his/her brother goes to San Francisco for Fleet Week, particularly today since there was also the air show.  So more ferries, but more ferries because of many, many more people.  However, I did not have to wait an hour, so that's good.

By the time I actually got to SF, I was pretty much itching to get running.  I thought that, as per the original plan, I would be there by around 9:30am, but because the ferry did Alameda - Oakland - SF (instead of the normal route Oakland - Alameda - SF), I didn't actually get there until closer to 11.  I just started running, going past Fisherman's Wharf and heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge.  By the way, there were people, but apparently runners near Fisherman's Wharf act like they own the place and run on the road.  It's pretty fun actually.

And so I headed toward the Golden Gate Bride, noticing that there were large people amassing near the shore in preparation for the airshow.  Not good.  I also noticed, around Fort Mason, that there was a hefty hill:

Legit hill.

I was hoping that this would be one of the few hills and I was correct.  So that was a nice surprise.

Around 3.8 miles, I had reached the Warming Hut near the Golden Gate Bridge:

Incidentally, none of these pictures is mine.  I didn't bring my camera.

I looked around for water fountain, didn't find one, and decided the time had come to stop and get a water.  There was a line (because people were amassing!), but I felt that it was worth stopping for a few minutes to prevent something very bad from happening.  I then drank about half of it over the next 5 minutes.  Definitely I could have developed a better game plan.  Why I did not just bring my water bottle from home, I have no idea.

I ran toward the Golden Gate Bridge, when I learned something interesting: you can't keep running in that direction beyond that point.  It's closed due to security issues.  So I had reached only around 4 miles, and had to turn around.  This was not a good sign because I had really wanted to go the straight 6, then turn back.  While I was running, I got thinking about one of my favorite books from when I was younger, Anastasia On Her Own by Lois Lowry.  The basic premise is that the protagonist, Anastasia Krupnik, is apparently a nascent control freak who wants to 'help' her mother organize her life.  She makes up these extensive lists to sort out the various chores that need to be done around the house.  Then her mother is called away to California, so Anastasia actually gets left in charge.  At this point, she realizes that the housekeeping schedule requires the addition of Unexpected Events, since there are unpredictable interruptions that take her off schedule.  I love this Unexpected Events idea.  That's basically how I felt about my whole damn run today.

The major flaw in my plan was that more and more people were in San Francisco as the air show was about to begin and I was heading right into this whole mess.  I tried to add on some distance by looping around places, such as near Crissy Field and the Marina District, but it still wasn't enough to make up the extra 4 miles that needed to be added.  As a result, I wound up in lots of crowds (boo), stopped at lights (double boo), and overall irritated with much of the run.  To give you a sense of just how irritating this got, at the 11.9 mile mark, I ran into a crowd of people and almost had to walk.  That is not the time you want to walk.  Instead, I hung a left and ran around the outside landscaped section of one of the buildings (I know this sounds weird, but I can't think of a better way of describing it).  Also, apparently I looked at my phone right when I started 11.9 because I can't think of another 0.1 of a mile that felt like it took so long.  Did I mention that my phone kept going into camera mode and ate a whole bunch of its battery?

It is worth noting that despite all of this, I still didn't give up.  And that was a good thing!  Even though it was by no means an ideal run.  I don't even know what the time was because everything was messed up from all of that starting and stopping.

Also, I had to run the Fort Mason hill again, but I noticed something.  In a way, the hill was great because it distracted me from anything else happening.  All I was thinking about was getting up the hill and finishing it, then keeping form while running back down.  This kind of focus was exactly what was needed right around the 9 mile mark.

A less nice surprise was the fact that because I started late, and because I was still running late, I wound up with a pretty decent sunburn on the bottom half of my face and neck.  Classy!

After all of this, I decided that it wasn't worth going to Chinatown since it would be crowded and it was far away (comparatively).  Instead, I opted to find a place to eat near Fisherman's Wharf.  I wanted to go to Boudin and have a chowder in a sourdough bowl:

However, I couldn't because they would not let me use my credit card without showing an ID.  Of course, I had no ID because I had only taken the basic necessities (by which I mean a credit card and my hotel key card).  The manager would not give me an exception.  My reaction is likely best described as Massachusetts. But come on: you've just run 12 irritating miles, you haven't eaten in almost 6 hours apart from the Mini ClifBar you had on your run, and some guy is not letting you get a chowder in a sourdough bowl because you don't have an ID?  Dude.

Instead, I went to Salty's and got a fishwich:

Yes!

This is exactly the kind of thing that I wanted after my run.  I also got a side of fries.  In hindsight, I wish I had ordered the garlic fries because they smelled insanely good.

The final pleasant surprise had to do with my trip home.  I got on the ferry only to learn that I was on the SF - Angel Island - Alameda - Oakland ferry.  So that added a good hour to the trip.  Seriously.  This time I decided to disembark in Oakland and get a taxi back to the hotel since I still needed to go back to my conference for 6pm.  However, there was not a cab to be seen in this part of Oakland.  A very large Bed, Bath and Beyond, but no cabs.  Remember, my phone was dead, so I couldn't just call.  Finally I located a hotel, got them to call me a cab, and made it back.  It was now 4:30pm, giving me just enough time to shower, throw on different shoes, get another cab, and get back to the conference.  Phew.  Made it around 5:57pm.  I had a very classy red sunburn to go with the purple top that I was wearing.  Super classy!

There was one last, nice surprise.  Seeing the air show over the bay from the ferry was pretty much sublime.  And might have made this whole, entire, convoluted adventure worth it.

Day behind

Yesterday was a 7-mile run in the continued ridiculously pleasant Florida weather.  I wore a running shirt with sleeves if you can imagine.  It was in the 60s I think throughout the run -- very unusual.  The route was around Stephanie and David's neighborhood, then with an extended route back through my neighborhood.  Pretty sure I wouldn't have wanted to do this in warmer weather because there were a lot of exposed places in the sun.

There are tons more Halloween decorations in Stephanie and David's neighborhood.  Pics to follow.  Also, I saw the woman with the dogs in the bike basket.

I didn't get a chance to write yesterday because I had to get to California, where I am now.  So pretty!  And cool.  In the low 60s right now.  Tomorrow's run, which will hit various scenic places around San Francisco, should be a pleasure.

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.

The weather gets better

Since Friday, I have heard the following descriptors used with regard to the weather:

'Gorgeous.'
'Perfect.'
'Wonderful.'

Allow me to point out that, in fact, it is still in the upper 80s during the day.  However, the humidity and high dew points have dropped, which does make a considerable difference.  Which is to say that the humidity still starts over 80% in the morning, but becomes more tolerable as the day goes on.  In fact, as I write this around 2pm, the humidity is below 35%, which means now there is a danger of forest fires.  Seriously.  This is a 'red flag' alert by the National Weather Service due to the low humidity.

But I am not complaining.  It was much nicer for running this morning.  Maybe not perfect, but awfully good.  Almost winter conditions -- oh, why am I pretending?  These are basically winter conditions.  Unfortunately, I got going a little too fast as a result, particularly around miles 3-7.  Today was 10 miles, incidentally.  As a result, miles 7-10 were much more of a challenge than maybe they needed to be.  But that's okay.  The key thing is that I finished.

Also, I could have done without the steep-grade hill around mile 8.5.  It's Florida.  How are there suddenly steep-grade hills?

When I was about half-way through mile 8, I started craving green iced tea in a huge way.  This is new and it suggests that maybe the time has come to rethink my hydrating strategies -- not that I would take green tea.  When I trained for the half marathon before, my trusty water bottle that has a convenient strap for holding it in my hand did the job just fine.  However, I am starting to think that I need more than simply one water bottle's worth of stuff.  Plus I am going to have to come up with a plan to stash those jelly beans for athletes or whatever I settle on using during the marathon.  Unfortunately, many of the options that you have for stashing such things are called fuel belts and they look, essentially, like fanny packs.  Running is not a time to look fashionable, as I well know.  And anyway, it is probably time to get something at least.

I was in the golf course neighborhood today, which was considerably more subdued in Halloween decorations.  Maybe they will pick it up closer to the event.

I have to say that the 10 miles felt like an Achievement.  I'm not sure why because it's not even half-way through the marathon distance (13.1), but still, it felt good.  And while I think that I could have been wiser in my strategy, I did still manage to finish, even with a very slight bit of oomph at the end.  I don't feel like I could do a marathon right now, but that's okay because I don't have to do one for another two months.  Until then, I need to focus on training consistently and things will be fine.  Today might not have felt good (particularly around mile 8.5, which as you probably figured out was the challenge portion), but some of it did.  Next week is 12 miles, which will be even more challenging because those will be Californian ones.