Crisp fall air...

Things are still moving along. I have two more weeks until I officially start tapering. This week was confidence boosting for a few reasons. More of my weekly runs were 'long' runs which in my mind means things over 6 miles (though that is starting to evolve) and for the first time I did an afternoon run preceding a morning long run. I for some reason have it in my head that I don't do that and there's no way I could recover in that short of time.

Those two runs were surprisingly great. Friday I did 7.5 miles on the Monon Trail - it had rained all day and was promising to rain more but there was a small window of clear skies when I started. It did eventually rain on the trail, but not too hard. This weather meant that I was one of the few people out there (also that it was Friday afternoon/evening) which made for some really beautiful views of the changing leaves on the path. Towards the end of the run I caught up to a woman that was running a quick pace (8:30ish) and my ego got the best of me so I passed her and maintained a 8:10 pace. I also came across the Crossfit studio that is on the path doing about 100 m sprints. Again - I let my ego get the best of me and ran my last mile in 8:02. 

On Saturday I had my long run, 12 miles. The temperature had dropped, it was fucking windy and the sky was threatening to rain again. The first 1.5 miles it seemed crazy to me that I was going to run 12 miles in those conditions on legs that were still tired from the night before. But I surprised myself and kept a.. mostly constant pace for the whole run. I failed again to actually run 12 miles. The canal towpath is 5, so down and back is 10. Meaning I needed to run two more on the Monon Trail but I turned around too soon and only ran 11.5. Regardless, I definitely tapped in the deep fatigue of a long run.

(Mile 11 involved stopping at traffic lights).

On my way back down the towpath during this run I encountered what appeared to be a loosely organized color run. I avoided getting covered in dye thankfully.

This change in temperature has been really welcomed and only made me more excited about running. I hope it lasts for a few more weeks before we start getting forecasts for snow!