I have a confession to make

I did do my run today, as mentioned in the previous post.  Today's was 5 miles.  Nothing fancy.  No speedwork or hills, just 5 miles.  Went pretty smoothly, particularly since the cold front is still in place.  In fact, I finally caved and turned on the heat because I don't want to get sick again if I can avoid it.  That's how great this cold front is.

In the small pond during today's run I thought that I saw three ducks standing on an alligator.  Alas, the three ducks were standing on a partially submerged sandbank.  But how awesome would that have been? 

I have something slightly embarrassing to confess.  It's my new motivational song.  Now, I don't actually run with music on because I think that learning how to be bored is an important part of training for a long event.  This may sound weird, but it's something that I observed when coaching rowing.  It's very hard to concentrate sometimes while exercising.  With crew, you need to be completely, 100% focused when you are in the boat.  That can be really hard to do when you start, but I feel that it's part of becoming a better athlete.  There are no distractions.  When I started running, I felt the same way: that you should concentrate on....well.....for lack of a better word, the boringness it.  But getting to a point where long runs are not boring is a good sign of progress.  So I don't run with music (I do distract myself while running, just not with extras).  I mentioned a few weeks ago that every so often, Bob Seger's 'Hollywood Nights' comes flying into my head out of nowhere -- actually that happened again today.  I have no shame in this.  In fact, I basically adore Bob Seger, so that's all good.  My embarrassing song is much worse: Britney Spears 'Gimme More.'  Yes.  I just admitted that publicly.

Lots of weirdness, really

So first, when I asked for a cold front last week, I didn't think that my wish would be granted quite so successfully.  We are in the middle of a real, honest-to-goodness cold front.  In Florida, that means that the high temperature today was 66F.  Yes, that's cold around these parts.  It is supposed to get down to the 30s tonight, which is super cold for here.  Also, the humidity is not higher than 50%.  Rather than call it cold, I prefer to think of it in the following terms, 'WHOO!!!!'

If we're really lucky, some alligators might come out and sun to combat the 'cold.'

It was so temperate, in fact, that I ran in the afternoon today.  Like around 2:30pm.  Which is practically unheard of.  Because the sun is still Mr. Florida Sun.  Cold weather in no way alters that fact.  It just makes it slightly more bearable.  However, when I was in sunny sections with no wind, you could still feel it beating down.  I feel silly writing this because despite this fact, running in the sun in mid-60s weather is one hell of a lot more enjoyable than, say, running in 90% humidity in 70+ degree weather.

There was a slight mishap today.  I was running on campus at USF (I'm actually still at work) and discovered something important: not all of the sidewalks are even.  Some jut upward.  My shoe caught on one of these exact spots and I managed to fall pretty well.  No major damage, just some nasty-looking scrapes.  My favorite part of today's run was after this slight mishap when some random guy on a bike yelled, 'WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR KNEES?'  and I yelled back,' I FELL.'  I mean, what else do you think would have happened to my knees?

Incidentally, I learned something about weather and split times today.  It was a 5-mile run and my split time was a full minute faster than recent similar distances.  Plus this is adding in stop times at lights, so it was probably even better with no more perceivable effort.  So for the umpteeth time, I would like to remind Irrational Me that split times are not relevant in Florida conditions!

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.

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.

When to run?

If all things were equal, I think that I would much prefer to run at sunset.  The humidity is down, the sun is not as powerful, and it is just more pleasant in my opinion.  But then you risk storms.  Today, I went around 7:00PM.  The weather was actually okay, especially with a bit of a cool breeze.  But the whole time there were mounting clouds and I got concerned that there would be a storm (there wasn't).

The morning run/evening run dilemma is just yet another one of the challenges posed by Florida.  There are only very small windows when you can run (early morning or before sunset).  I guess I could run at night, but it would make me nervous.  There are not always sidewalks or streetlights, not to mention that there are very few people outside.  When I was in Boston a few weeks ago, I realized that I was surprised to see people out at night.  It makes me more nervous to think that I would be out on my own at night, so I generally take a pass.

Undoubtedly, the highlight of today's run was coming back and passing the small pond.  There was an alligator that had surfaced and he was sitting there like he owned the place.  Actually, he does own the place, so more power to him.  Another good reason not to run at night: every so often, you do hear of a runner being attacked by an alligator.  No need for that.

Today I booked my massage for mid-September and ordered two new sports bras.  Can you tell that payday was yesterday?  Tomorrow I plan to go find some new shoes.  The old ones are definitely worn and I can feel some slight stiffness in my knee, which is the sign that new shoes are needed.  I hope I can find pretty ones!