Thinking about getting serious

I took an unexpected break from running this past weekend. I spent a fun few days with friends in D.C. and, while I took my running shoes with me, the large amount of walking we did around our nation's capital combined with the lure of relaxing with food and spirits pretty much quenched all desire to go for a run (especially in the heat and humidity). So yesterday was my first run in 5 days. It felt good. There's something to be said about taking a short break. But now I'm back in the saddle with only 2 weeks left to goof around before starting to train for real. I'm not looking forward to the long runs in either heat and humidity or at very early hours of the morning but I'm afraid that's how it's going to be until late September, most likely. Oh well, it won't kill me.

More please!

This ramping up stuff is difficult. Especially when the weather isn't the best or you have to run at a time of day you're not used to (and don't particularly like). I've been trying to get myself to run longer distances and more often. I've managed to up the frequency without too much ado. However, getting myself to add an extra mile on has been difficult. When I get close to the point where I usually stop and I've already sweated off a couple of pounds due to the humidity I can easily talk myself out of continuing on. But it's gotta happen eventually and I'd rather increase my distance a little bit here and there now than wait until I start training and then I have to do it all at once. So I guess I'm just going to have to stop whining about it and (to quote Nike) just do it. While that makes for a great motto, it's easier said than done.

Ready for training (I think)

I'm a bit torn. I think it's been a good thing to decrease my mileage, take it a little easy, and let my body rest a bit this past month. That said, I just haven't been myself lately and I think at least part of that is due to feeling like I'm not doing my best with my runs (see my thoughts on comfort from a few weeks ago). I feel sluggish, I don't have as much energy as I'm used to, and I'm just not happy with my performance. While that seems counter-intuitive, any avid exerciser will tell you that in order to have energy you have to expend energy. There are 3.5 weeks until I officially start training for the marathon. I think I'm going to ease my mileage back up to 15 miles or so a week over the next few weeks. Hopefully that will help me feel better plus it will put me in a good position to start training. November will be here before I know it!

At least it's not still dark

I was up at 5:30am today to run. At least it's summer which means it's actually light out at that time of the morning. The Sun wasn't quite up (at least not above the houses) but it was light. And there's something to be said for being done with my run so early in the day. However, I typically like going for my run so I'm not particularly anxious to get it over with or anything like that. I'd much rather be awake and enjoy my run. But the weather simply doesn't allow for that at the moment. According to weather.com, at 4pm (my usual running time) it will feel like 104. No thank you. The heat wave is supposed to pass soon so hopefully I won't be setting my alarm clock for my next run. Of course, come July and August it will probably be unavoidable.

Sleep running

I set my alarm for 6am so that I could get my run in before it got completely disgusting outside. I hate running first thing in the morning. I'm not a morning person in general. But sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. So I threw back a glass of OJ and hit the pavement. It was cool and foggy and I decided to just take it slow. I think I finally woke up somewhere around mile 3 or so. I don't think my legs woke up until closer to mile 4. I guess I'd better get used to it.

Humidity!

I ran today in the heat and humidity. It's certainly going to get much worse before it gets better but it was still pretty disgusting out there. When I started feeling sick to my stomach about half way through the run I realized that I really need to drink more water, especially in this weather. I'm horrible about staying hydrated but I think the threat of heat exhaustion might motivate me to be better about it. There is a heat advisory for the weekend with heat indexes predicted to reach 100. Looks like I'll be getting up pretty early for my runs. Man, I hate running early in the morning.