Ran through the Summer, and now it's Fall

The past week and a half have been going well, running wise. I've managed to bring my running back to 4 times a week. It's a bit harder in the fall as the light sky appears later in the morning and sneaks out early at night - I'm also finding it harder to get out of bed even thought it hasn't gotten all that colder. I think this is mostly because it's been very foggy and misty most mornings.

Tomorrow I am running my first over 10 miler since July - 12.5 miles with 4 miles at half marathon pace. My pace has been back to a snails pace lately, so maybe this will snap be out of it. In fact, I'm not really feeling like I'm going to set a new PR, but I will set my sights on it...

Running up that hill

This morning I did the first hill workout for my 1/2 Marathon Training. Since the 1/2 is in a month and a half, every workout counts! I ran up the hill 5 times (after a warm up) - the first few were slow but by the end I was doing ok. I just have to keep reminding myself to get my butt out there!

The smell of Fall in the air is helping. Can you believe we only have a few official last days of Summer left?

Back with a bang!

Saturday morning at 5am I woke up with a bang - the loudest thunder I have ever heard caused me to wake up gasping for air with my heart pounding. Dan went out of the bedroom to see what it was because he said maybe it was a gun going off. Probably not the safest thing to do but very brave. He came back and said it was thunder and it was raining, very strange for September in San Francisco. The lightening storm continued as Sarah started her 19 mile run and I joined her at mile 12 so I could run 7 miles. It was hailing, rainy, foggy and humid. I staggered along still trying to get back into running shape. After our run, we saw that PG&E had closed off my street. I asked them what happened and they pointed me to the corner. The lightening hit a transformer and jumped to the two cars next to it and melted the fronts of both and set them on fire. Crazy.

This week has been slightly more uneventful. Dan and I did a 5 mile run to Mountain Lake on Monday and today I hope to do a hill workout after work. Friday is a tempo run and Sunday is 10 miles. Next week I will get back into 5 runs a week until I do a slight taper for the US Half Marathon on Nov 1st. I don't really have a time goal for that race, I just want to stay in shape and hopefully maintain it over the holidays because on Jan 1st I am going to start really getting in shape for the May 2 Avenue of the Giants Marathon and then for my wedding on July 3rd :)

Back on the Track!

I have been slow, ever so slow in getting back into things since the marathon. I always forget that it's hard to get back into the swing of things sometimes after the big day. Sarah has the NYC marathon to run for, but I slowly realized I had to take a break from 26.2 to focus on some other thing. Oh my excuses, they are aplenty! But, but! This week looks good so far! Monday I ran 5 miles, today I did a track workout with Sarah (she kicked butt!) and I realized although I am slightly out of shape, I'm not that bad. I am also going to sign up for the US Half Marathon in SF in Nov, the same day as Sarah's Marathon so I can still run some of her long runs with her.

Friday is a 5 mile run and on Saturday I will do 7 - Sarah's last 7 miles of her 19 mile run!

PS I did 4 800's and a 400.

PSS Here's a pic from where I am getting married next July!

Bike to work!

After two weeks of near slothdom (one run per week only), I decided to get off my lazy butt and do something. We had family staying with us for 10 days, so I was using that as an excuse, but now they are back on the east coast so my excuses are gone. Bummer.

I decided to bike to the train station - a 4.2 almost all downhill ride. I got there pretty fast and the route that the bike route planner chose had bike lanes so it was a pretty sweet ride. Tonight it will be mostly up hill so it won't be as sweet, but at least I'll get my workout in!