Building confidence

I had a good run today. I needed it. After having to cut my 9-mile run short a couple of weeks ago I was a little worried. While I did run in the morning today (not my best time of day) the weather was rather nice and my performance was much improved. I managed the 10 miles pretty easily and I'm feeling good about my training again. I'm hopeful that the weather will continue to to get better. Today it was humid (97%) but cooler and overcast which made it far more comfortable than it has been in a long time.

Getting serious

I've now got 7 weeks of training behind me. There are still 13 more ahead of me but it's already starting to get serious. Last weekend my long run was up to 9 miles. Unfortunately due to a crazy schedule I had to run in the afternoon on a very hot and humid day. I ended up cutting it short by a mile because it was just too much. I was certainly disappointed in myself but I know these things happen and it's not the end of the world. This week I had my first tempo run. This is where you run at a significantly higher intensity level for short periods of time. Speed work. It was fun just to shake things up and I managed to get out early enough in the morning that the heat wasn't so bad. Yesterday my long run was only 6 miles (a fall back week) and it actually felt easy. That was very nice. But next weekend I will be doing 10 miles and the weekend after that it will be 12. The numbers are going up at a rapid pace now and I feel like I'm not ready. Especially after the defeat of last weekend. Of course, I won't be so stupid as to run in the afternoon heat again. Hopefully the summer temps will be easing up (I was actually thinking about how great it would be run in the snow last weekend!) and the training will do what it's supposed to do. In the meantime I'm trying not to think about the 10 miles looming in the not-too-distant future.

Hills and flying squirrels

I've now finished 5 weeks of my training, with 15 more to go. I spent the past week in Portland, OR visiting family. It's always nice to run some place different for a bit. The change in scenery is usually a good distraction while running. That is, except when I'm at my folks' house. You see, they live at the top of a pretty good-sized hill. No matter which way you go from their house you're going to be running hills. And it's not just a simple downhill stretch to more level road... the roads snake around all over this hillside so the slope is always changing and there are just as many uphills as down. It's pretty harsh. I also did some running at the beach during my trip. I was mostly on the wet, packed sand but it's still different than running on the pavement. What this all meant was that my calves were a bit tight by the time I came home. It's OK, though. It's good to mix things up.

Yesterday I ran 8 miles around campus. I was looking forward to being on level pavement again. Of course, Pennsylvania isn't without its excitement. As I ran past a trash can I startled a squirrel that was foraging and he took a flying leap to the ground right in front of me. Had our timing been just a few seconds different I might have been wearing the rodent. That would have been one for the record books.

Tomorrow we're supposed to have record heat. Depending on how the day plays out I might be running on the treadmill. I'm not sure I could take the heat + humidity outside. I'll be glad when the summer weather starts easing up. My runs have seemed especially hard lately. I don't recall them being so hard last summer. Some folks would blame my age but I'm sticking to the weather.