Workout: 9 miles

Time: 1:18

What a wonderful way to spend a beautiful fall Sunday…a long run, followed by a full day of NFL football!

The original plan was to wake up at 8:00, be running by 9:00, home by 10:30, breakfast, shower, church, then football!!!  Here’s how it went instead…8:00 alarm goes off.  Snooze.  8:09 alarm goes off.  Turn alarm off.  Fall back asleep.  Wake up at 8:45.  Head out the door at 9:45.  Running by 10:15.  Done by 11:30.  Stop to get breakfast at the local bagel place.  Home by 12.  Eat.  Too late for church.  Shower.  Sit on couch.  Watch football.

I love the fall weather for running.  It’s the perfect mix…bright sunshine, clear skies, but relatively cool and dry air.  You couldn’t ask for anything better.  What’s your favorite season?  Share your opinion in the poll on the right hand side of the screen!

So I ran down at the Towpath today.  My first mile started out slow.  I needed to stop once to pour out some Gatorade because the bottle was too heavy.  Lesson learned…if carrying Gatorade, get a smaller bottle.  In any case, the rest of the run went really well.  I had my Garmin set to yell at me if I went over 8:20…and it yelled at me frequently.  I wanted to keep the pace around 8:30…I did a pretty good job.  I took a short walk break at the beginning of mile 9 because the inside of my knee started to hurt a little, but other than that (and my arm/wrist being tired from carrying the Gatorade) the run went really well.  I definitely could have gone faster had I wanted to, but I felt good with my decision to keep to that pace.  My goal for ING is a 7:59 pace, so I think I should be good.

In any case, looking forward to some good weather this week to let me have a quality week.  Then I’ll do a 12 miler next weekend, before beginning to taper for the race.  Hopefully I can make a Team in Training run so I don’t have to carry my water, but we’ll see how it goes.  I need to hit the local running store to get running socks, so perhaps I’ll just get a fuel belt while I’m there.

In any case, enjoy your week everyone!  And no matter what, run on friends!

P.S.  My best friend’s wedding was on Friday.  It went great, and the reception was tons of fun.   Here’s a picture from the wedding below: