Cooler Days

I love this time of year. The days are getting cooler, the humidity level decreases, and running feels pretty good.

My running routine changes throughout the year. I have quite a few races coming up, so my current schedule is to run every other day (average 3 days a week, sometimes 4). My favorite time to run is after work along the waterfront. I change into running clothes and walk to the security-guarded parking garage where I leave my things in the car. The route I often take from the garage to the Pier and back is about 5 miles. My next race is the Women’s Half Marathon on Nov 21^st, so I’m increasing to 8 miles today. Nice and slow.

During the summer, after work is not a fun time to run, but I have a really hard time getting up at 5am to run before. The anti-runner in me hits snooze until it's too late to run before work, and my punishment is to run in the Florida deathrays of the late afternoon. Lately, I have prefered this to waking up early. I’m so grateful the temperature has been in the mid 80s for a couple of weeks now.

I ran the 5-mile route Wednesday, and a cool breeze kept me from sweating much, along with a cloud cover that blocked the sun. I listened to one of my favorite podcasts, The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, and felt the best I’ve felt while running in a long time (since summer started in APRIL).

Today, the 8-miles ...

Okay, so not as cool today as I anticipated. It's pretty hot, in fact, as you may notice by the red color on my face and beads of sweat lining my forehead. I'm still smiling at this point. I'm probably laughing at something Rish and Big are saying on the Dunesteef podcast I'm listening to. Helps sooo much to listen to something while slowly jogging. But praise Jesus, I made it and I have a series of pictures to prove it on my new "Photos" tab.