Fall Has Arrived...for now at least...

If there's one thing I've learned from living in Florida all these years, it's never to take the first hint of cooler temperatures and lower humidity too seriously, it probably won't stick around for long!  However, for today at least, I had the pleasure of doing my morning run in about 65 degree temps and staggeringly low humidity!  It felt wonderful for a change and I spent much of my run through "the anchor" distracted by just how cool it was outside!  I had to stay at my parents' house lastnight, so I ended up finding a loop to run at their house.  Upon mapping the route, I noticed that the first leg of it looked distinctly like a boat's anchor.  So, there we go.  The only thing with the anchor, besides it being fantastically tree-lined and shady, is the large number of hills.  I had run this route once before and I guess it was long enough ago that I completely forgot about all of the hills the anchor holds in store.  Ugh.  But, I kept telling myself that these would make me a stronger runner and to just keep going!  And so I did!

BY THE NUMBERS:

Total Distance: 3.5 miles
Total Time: 1 hour
Longest Run: 22 mins/1.62 mi

Walk Break
2 more (approximately) .5 mi segments

The run today was sort of split up.  As usual, I did my 5 minute warm up walk and then ran my longest consecutive time of 22 minutes before walking again.  I'm not really sure how long my walking break was after that, I forgot to track it.  But I started running again once I hit the main road and ran for about .45 mi to the front of their subdivision and the tennis courts where Rob was playing with a friend of his.  This is where the run splits.  I stopped to watch them play tennis for a little while. (That's why my time was so slow today.)  When I started realizing how badly Rob was doing, I decided I better leave in case I was distracting him or something.  So, after a nice little rest break, I ran the rest of the way to my parents' house (about .6 mi).

Since starting to run these longer consecutive distances, I've noticed that I've had trouble starting to run again afterward.  I'm taxed and I have very little will to continue running again once my body has stopped.  However, today was different!  I'm sure this is entirely based upon the fact that the weather was perfect!  I found that I could restart and just kind of zone out and keep chugging along.  This is encouraging for the 5K next week.  While I have no illusions that I'll be able to run the whole way (if only!), my goal is to beat my chip time from last month's race.  I don't care if it's only by a few seconds, seconds count, y'know!   

With a great run under my belt, it's time to get cleaned up and enjoy this football Saturday!!  Saturdays are my favorite during football season, I can't get enough of college football!  While my Terps aren't much of a force, Rob's Gators are usually pretty fun to watch.  (At the very least, they don't make me want to smash my head against a wall like my beloved Terps do!)