The Anti-Running Runner

Today I wanted to run to the beach. It's a treat for me, but there's a cost. Ten miles. And I don't get to end at the beach, that's just the halfway point. But I love running to the water. There's just something about it. And most of the route (miles two through eight) is really beautiful. This morning I left around six thirty. Not early enough. It was soooo hot and humid already. I knew from the first mile that the run would be a challenge to finish, and that I'd end up walking some of it. Things I should've done differently: ~Gone to bed earlier last night ~Woken up earlier this morning ~Drank more water yesterday On Tuesday, I got up intending to run about four miles, and ended up doing seven. NOT normal for me. But some kind of fluke cold(er) front had settled over St. Pete. The cloud cover kept me from getting any direct beatings from the sun (not the case today). I thought this was probably the last cool day I'd have for a while. I sho...

At 6:30 AM on Jan 19th, hubby dropped Alyssa and I off at Coachman Park. A ride to and from any race is such a blessing. Alyssa and I have decided it's essential for a marathon. We don't recommend driving yourself if you don't have to. A side trip about my pre-race eating habits: I have finally learned what works best for me and my uber-tender running stomach. It tells me loud and clear what it does and doesn't like. The problem? During long runs when I haven't eaten the way my body wants me to, what I have often felt is motion sickness. At least, that's the closest thing I can compare it to. Once in the fall during a late evening run with Hea (18 miles), it felt like that creature from Alien was about to burst through my diaphragm. Mainly because I ate a sea salted almond around mile eight. Body rejected. It should've been an unsalted almond, but now I can't eat any type of almonds before or during a run. The other thing I've learned is tha...

I have yet to blog about the last races I did before summer. Next time, I'll blog about The Claw Run 10 miles, which turned out to be quite a wonderful adventure with a big surprise at the end. After that, I'll blog about the Police Appreciation Run 10K where I had a great time with my hubby. In the meantime, I was thrilled to run 15K (about 9.3 miles) on Wednesday because I haven't gone that far in a while. The summer heat has been ferocious, so it's difficult to go more than 3 or 4 miles at a time. I still refuse to get up early enough to avoid the sun, so I have to suffer for it when I do run. I've been fairly consistent, running every other day between 2 and 6 miles. My neighborhood is okay, but I like some variety in scenery. I searched how far it was to the nearest beach (Treasure Island). A round trip was about 15K. I decided to run part of the route on Monday to see how it felt. Much of it was beautiful with lots of cloud cover, which I appreciated. I...

My hubby and I had an amazing weekend getaway at Anna Maria Island. I think we’ve decided it’s one of our favorite spots in the world. The beach is so gorgeous. It’s a quaint and pretty quiet area, at least where we stayed. Our three-day weekend was way too short, though. The water came up pretty high right in front of our condo, so not a lot of sand. I brought my Vibrams, but they are still too new to get dirty/wet/sandy yet. But what a perfect opportunity to try a completely barefoot run!  Beautiful beach I got to run on  I stuck with the half mile distance on Saturday. It was nice. After raining all week, especially thunderstorms Friday night, it was cooler and windy. It seemed way too easy. I wasn’t sore at all, and I decided, why not a mile tomorrow? All we did was relax the entire weekend, so Sunday I went for it. The shells can be a bit sharp, so I had to watch my step. I did have one break off on my toe but it didn’t draw any blood. Overall, not much sorenes...