Well, this summer has come and gone. As a teacher, the year is measured by the start and end of the summer. As always, I spent most of this summer on my favorite beach. Just check my twitter or instagram for dozens of pictures of paradise on the island.
Also, this was a pretty amazing summer for training. With a fairly oppressive summer, once the weather stopped cooperating for lengthy runs, I switched to biking, my new joy. Although I will get to that in later posts, I will just say that not once did I have heart rate spikes that were plaguing me in any run longer than 16 miles.
While on that topic, I made a deal with myself that any long run I did this summer would be over 15 miles and kept it right up until the last week in July, with my last 21 mile run. None of them were particularly fast, but in the heat and humidity here in Florida, I felt just happy to finish at all. With squishy shoes, saturated clothes, and dead phone bluetooth headset batteries, I did require at least on rescue from my wonderful wife.
Now I'm faced with a new season of runs. Last year I ran every race I could afford, but in many cases was just showing up and not really pushing myself. This lead to some disappinting times, but lots of medals. This year, I am trying to up my mileage and have signed up for two marathons (including the immortal WDW Goofy Race and a Half Challenge!) and am going to try for an ultra (50 miler) in April. Although I'm very nervous since my first marathon was emotionally difficult, I have gotten pretty strong this summer and feel that the mileage won't be as daunting as it was the first time. In fact, this summer I was able to run several 20 mile runs, in the heat, unsupported (except for refilling my water bottle) and although my pace slowed considerable after the 16 mile mark, I didn't feel completely wiped. In fact, I often loaded the kayaks on the car and headed to the beach.
As the weather cools, I am looking forward to some real run and some real advancements in my times.
Never thought this would be who I am, but here we are....
