A three-run transition

There have been three runs since my last post. Things have been incredibly hectic here, so updating the blog has obviously fallen a bit behind. I'm here to catch up!

On Wednesday 10/17 Meg and I did a two-loop, 3.7 mile run at Meadowbrook. This past Wednesday the plans got FUBARed along the way, so we moved locations to my subdivision. It was about 50 degrees when we left my house. The wind was blowing, making us both lament our decision to forgo ear warmers. Even though it was cold, we had a great time! It was fun to introduce Meg to my running route here. And as every fall/winter runner will tell you, there is something inherently rewarding about running in the cold until you're not cold anymore. If we were halfway reasonable people we would have stayed in and brewed hot tea. But we're runners, so we ran. And we had a great time. We put in about 35 minutes.

This morning we headed to the indoor track on campus to run. There was a 40% chance of rain and it was in the low 50's again, so we decided it was time to find a warm, dry place to run. Who wants to run on wet leaves? The indoor track is 200 m, or 1/8 mile. We ran three miles with a short break between each mile. Nothing crazy. It was a nice, easy, Saturday morning run. I think for me, this was the first time in a while that I've done two runs within a few days of each other, so for me it felt more like getting back into the swing of things than it felt like a traditional Saturday run. During training, Saturdays are reserved for long runs, after all! Anyway, the track was nice. There was just one other runner, a sprinter, on the track. I think we'll use the facility more through the winter.

These three runs have been a transition into running in the cold and coping with unsafe running weather. I realized that I need some long-sleeved running shirts. All I have are the few things I bought to train for our half-marathon. So, Target, here I come again! It's weird to think of running indoors until spring, but it's approaching the time to face that reality. I'm sure we'll get a few more outdoor runs in; we haven't even had a frost yet, after all. Yet we're both fully aware that summer, and warm weather, are gone for the year.

Over a cup of coffee after our run we talked more seriously about our next race. We're planning to run the Indianapolis half-marathon next October. I am SO excited!! We're thinking the weather should be reasonable, and the entrance fee is really cheap. We also heard good things about it from one of the guys at Body & Sole (I finally got new shoes!). Meg might run another race in the spring, and we both might do 5ks or something through the winter/spring/summer. Picking our next race, and thus our next training season, makes me so happy. I am so excited to do this again.