Running later today

Last night, I decided that the time had come for something revolutionary.  I was not going to set the alarm to go running.  Yes.  That's right.  I slept in on a Sunday.  I can count the number of times I have done this since August on one hand.  Actually, I can count the number of times I have done this since August on one finger (the weekend I was in Pittsburgh since I completed my long run on Thursday).  So this is nice.  I plan to go later today.  It's only 5 miles, so I'm not too concerned, plus it's on the nice side for temperature again.

I've started checking the weather for the marathon already.  The forecast right now calls for a high of 61F during the day, with an overnight low in the 40s.  DO NOT CHANGE.  STAY JUST AS YOU ARE.  That would be like a freaking dream.

Yesterday,  I did another one of those 3-mile runs.  Whoo.  I didn't blog because I didn't turn on the computer.  There was much baking and preparing that needed to be done since last night was the Temple Terrace Golf Cart Christmas Parade and that is clearly an event that requires celebrating:

Actual golf cart used in actual golf cart Christmas parade.

One accomplishment from yesterday's run was that I totally beat some other woman who was running too.  This is somewhat petty of me, I realize.  She struck me as maybe not so serious about running because she wore sweatpants, which is also terrible.  I should like that other people are running and applaud their efforts, regardless of what they are wearing.  She was also a walky/runny person (as in, someone who walks for a bit, then runs), and I have great disdain for the walky/runny crowd.  Well, not really .  Not great disdain.  Whatever works for you.  But as someone who is slow enough to sometimes be around walky/runny people in a race, they drive me nuts when they out of nowhere change pace from running to walking.  At least have some awareness while you do that.  Anyway, I beat yesterday's walky/runny person wearing sweatpants.  This might not seem like much of an accomplishment, but for me it was...although I realize that this is completely petty and somewhat dumb.  Meh. 

Last of the semi-long runs

This post is the third in a three-part series to get caught up with my running exploits after having been out of town for Thanksgiving weekend.  Although actually it talks about today's run, so technically it is still on time.

Back in Florida, back to the hot runs.  Although luckily, this morning wasn't too bad, from a temperature/humidity standpoint: it was actually in the 50s to start and didn't get over the mid-60s.  I was hoping to get up early and go, but didn't have much oomph to start my day, so I started around 8am.  Today was 10 miles, the last serious distance before the marathon.  Everything is much shorter from here on out and I think that the longest remaining runs are 5 miles.

However, I still have this super-annoying head cold!  So the weather didn't seem quite so great because I was sweaty the whole time anyway.  It was somewhat helpful to have a point of comparison for running while sick since I didn't really in Detroit with the conditions varying so much from normal.  What I learned was that running while you are sick is not fun.  I didn't feel comfortable really at any point, although the run itself went relatively well.  Perhaps it is all in my head (HA!  Get it?)

Today I also experienced my first technical glitch of the entire training period.  I have to say that this isn't too bad considering that I managed to get through about 340 miles without one.*  I'm not sure that today's run was exactly 10 miles, but that's okay.  Around mile 7.8, the distance tracker seemed to freeze.  Either that, or it was the longest 0.1 mile I have ever run.  Flashbacks to the turkey trot with no 5-mile marker.  Then suddenly, I had run 8.3 miles.  Ditto at 8.8.  In other words, there was some weird 'increments of 0.5' thing going on, then things were fine.  However, I'm not sure that it tracked the distance exactly right.  I still ran to what the phone claimed was 10 miles.  And that will just have to do.

*Incidentally, that is an insane number.  I have run over 340 miles training for this thing.  Insane.  That is further than from here to Savannah, GA.

The Long and Winding Road (mostly long)

[Yesterday I ran 4 miles.  Nothing exciting to report.  Although there is now a 'On Purpose Stephanie Encounter' to go with the 'Random Stephanie Encounter.']

Today was the last long run: 20 miles.  And I finished it.  It was not the most pleasant run I have ever done: it started in the 60s with 85% humidity, enough to push the temperature + humidity number to 150 (which, as you may recall, is too close to 160 for my comfort).  During the course of the run, the conditions did not get much better, exacerbated by the fact that I am a really freaking slow runner so everything took a long, long time.  But no matter.  It is now done.  With any luck, these will be the worst conditions I encounter for such a lengthy distance.

I ran my normal route around the north part of the golf course neighborhood, then went over to the south part to loop miles 7ish-13ish.  Overall, it was a really nice route, particularly because there were convenient water stops: one about 1/4 (or 3/4 on the return) of the way through and another at the halfway point.  Very useful.  Probably would not have done so well without them, particularly since I forgot to pick up some of the healthy Gatorade stuff, so I was stuck with only water (and, naturally, my sports beans).  When I felt my brain wandering, I reminded myself that this was a combination of tired/need sports beans/want hydration and to keep focused.

Completing 20 miles feels like a real accomplishment, even though there is still the long race to go.  I've been thinking a lot about the overall training during the past week and am pleased that I've done a good job at getting out there and running, even when I don't feel like it.  This hasn't always been easy, but on the whole, I think that it's been easier than I expected.  I'm also really thrilled that I have such a wonderful neighborhood at my disposal because that has made everything much more pleasant.  As I ran today, I thought about how fortunate I am to live in and around a neighborhood that offers so many options for routes, while also providing shade, scenery, and very little traffic:

And pretty, colored trees!

And now, on to Taper Time!

Whoomp here it is

I just mapped my 20-mile run for this Sunday.  You can see it here.

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.'

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!

Riverhills Drive

Today was the first of the official long runs.  It was 6 miles.  Perhaps understandably, I found it hard to equate 6 miles with a long run.  After all, the actual marathon will require 6 miles, then another 20 and change afterward.  But 6 miles is still a decent distance, particularly when run in Florida summer conditions -- as I learned once the run was over.

The first 'big' race that I did was 10k, which amounts to 6.2 miles.  This made me feel like I had made it as a runner, for some reason, even though my time was horrid.  My run today, in Florida summer conditions, was better than that run.  It was the Tufts 10k, which I highly recommend if you live anywhere near Boston (and are female).  You run on the Cambridge side of the Charles, then back on Commonwealth Avenue, which is the wicked pretty part of Boston.  The race finishes in Boston Common (remember the Frog Pond?).  It's very well organized and a great day.  When I did it, friends and I sat on the grass afterward for a while, just enjoying the weather.  I highly recommend.

This is one race that I wish I could run again, particularly since I am now a better runner.  I think that it was a stretch at the time.  What I mostly remember about miles 4-6 was trying to push myself through mentally.  We were on Comm Ave, which is the part of Boston where the streets are organized alphabetically (NB: this is the only part of Boston that you can really say is 'organized').  I kept counting down the streets, but each one was taking far, far longer than I thought.  For instance, I remember thinking that I was almost past Exeter Street, then realizing that not only was I not past it, but I was not even there yet, and the intersection itself felt like it took 10 minutes.  And that was only the 'E' street.  I still had Dartmouth, Clarendon, Berkeley, and Arlington to go.

Anyway, today's 6 miles didn't require quite so much mental push, although I would have been utterly fine with stopping after 5 miles.  But I didn't, which is the whole point.  I need to be better about running to finish rather than running to finish well; this mentality will be really important during the marathon.  Six miles is still at the point where I could probably do decently well if I raced it tomorrow.  That cannot be said of 12 miles or anything beyond that, when it will just be about finishing.  I need to get more in that mindset, particularly since the conditions in Florida change (get awful) so drastically from the start to finish of long runs.

I ran around the golf course neighborhood, past some of the really nice sections.  This was on Riverhills Drive, which you may have deduced is near the river.  This was the oldest part of Temple Terrace that was built up and has a lot of very nice and interesting homes, plus plenty of shady oak trees.  Here's a sample of some of my favorites from today:

Near Ben Lomond Park.  There are a lot of Scottish names, presumably to go with the golf course theme.

One of the best aspects of Temple Terrace, in my opinion, is that the flora has grown in so nicely.  Other, more recent neighborhoods in Tampa don't have this.

I love the roof tiles!

My run today started on Riverhills Drive, turning about 2 miles in at Florida College.  I went by a spot of historical note: the exact place on the Temple Terrace golf course that Reverend Billy Graham received his calling from God.  Yes, he was out golfing and God spoke to him.  This is the fairway where this momentous event occurred:

Actual fairway where Billy Graham received calling.  It is the 18th hole.  Good thing he had almost finished the round.

I, however, had no such experience today.  The final photo I took as I was heading home, but it serves as a lovely encapsulation of the fact that yes, this neighborhood is built around a golf course:

An enjoyable run. In Florida. Yes, really!

As an astute reader of this blog, you are undoubtedly aware that running in Florida is not my favorite thing.  But when I get to run around a neighborhood with lush gardens, stately trees, beautiful houses, and a peaceful route, I cannot complain.  Especially when you add in a sky filled with infinite shades of orange, pink, and purple during sunset.  This was in the neighborhood across the street that is built around the 1920s golf club.

DISCLAIMER: it was still hot.  And humid.  And I got insanely sweaty.  So it's not like this was my dream run.  Given the conditions, though, it was about as awesome as it gets, in my opinion.

(I tried to get a picture of the sunset.  I really did.  But I just barely missed it by, like, 5 minutes.  Next time).

Work made it difficult to run this morning because hey guess what?  We had a meeting!  So I decided to leave it until the night, which made me nervous all day.  When I first moved to Florida, I started running at night and did not enjoy it one little bit.  For the first couple of weeks or so, I would make it to two miles and then I would have to stop.  This wasn't an option.  I literally could not continue.  Eventually I got better but it was very frustrating for me and I've tried to avoid running at sunset ever since.  However, after running in the morning, I have to say that running at night really doesn't seem so bad.  Second, leaving runs for later gives me cause for concern that I won't go.  In part, this is a practical concern: there is always a possibility that there will be a thunderstorm since that happens frequently in the summer.  But I also have this nagging worry that I just won't do it.  This is a bit silly, in a way.  After all, if I can motivate myself to go in the morning, why wouldn't I be able to to it at night?

Probably this builds into a bigger concern that I have about missing training.  I'm fully aware that missing one day is not the end of the world and that it won't completely derail my training.  What makes this even sillier is that if something had come up today, I could have gone tomorrow.  But still, I worry.  And today, all was for naught because this was easily the best run that I've had since I started this training program.

Another great thing about running in the golf course neighborhood: there are hills.  This might seem like a weird bonus, since hills are hard to run.  But because hills are hard to run, that makes them great for training.  Now, these weren't sizable hills by any stretch of the imagination, but they do count.

To make things even better, my new yoga DVDs showed up today.  And when I was stretching tonight, I noticed (gasp) that I am even becoming very slightly more flexible.

Good day.

An almost pleasant run. Which is weird. For several reasons.

This morning I was back on the road (with no noticeable dental issues) and did a 3 mile run. I decided to go over to the core of Temple Terrace, which is the section built around the golf course. If you do have to run in Florida, then there are certainly far worse places to be than Temple Terrace. The houses are interesting: some were built in the 1920s, while the bulk were from the 1960s. None of them looks like a McMansion. And there are plenty of trees that offer wonderful, comforting shade. It was -- dare I say -- almost pleasant at points.

I was a bit concerned because I didn't quite handle this morning in the best possible way. First, I stayed up far too late last night watching Cheers reruns. I love Cheers. Basically, I love almost anything set in Boston, plus if I had to pick the TV character I most resemble, I think that I would go with Diane Chambers. To top things off, it was the story arc where Sam was dating Captain Janeway (okay, it was really Kate Mulgrew and her character's name was Janet Eldridge) and Diane quit working at the bar. Then Sam proposed to Diane and she had to dig his picture out of the garbage. I still remember this episode from when it originally aired, a sign that I am getting old. At any rate, despite the fact that I know sleep is important, particularly when you are training to run a major event, I couldn't resist watching and got to bed at an unreasonable hour.

Not surprisingly, it was tricky to get out of bed this morning and I thought that the late start would be deleterious. To my surprise, it really wasn't. In fact, parts when I was running in the shade were downright nice. Don't get me wrong: it was still tough and I was all red and sweaty by the end. But it felt less like death that previous runs this week. Also, I cut my mile split by over a minute from Wednesday. I'm not quite sure exactly how much I cut it by because I accidentally hit 'Power Up' instead of 'Stop Run' on my phone app. When you hit 'Power Up,' the app plays Seal's 1991 hit song 'Crazy.' That was unexpected.

When I got home, I thought I would double-check to make sure that Florida is not experiencing some kind of 'cold front' -- HA! But as it turns out, it is even more hot than normal. Icky hot. Heat warning hot. Heat index already in the 100F range hot at 10am. But the run didn't feel so bad.

I saw Inception earlier this week and I'm wondering if this wasn't all a Cheers-induced dream. We'll know if Captain Janeway suddenly shows up.

PS - Apparently, those of us who 'like' the Kiawah Island Marathon on Facebook get a chance to sign up early tonight. So tonight's the night!

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.