- Longhorn Football. Yes, it is true. I bleed orange.
- The leaves change. I grew up in the Texas Panhandle. We didn't have leaves. Now that I am in D.C., they are a glorious sight.
- My two favorite holidays arrive back to back. First my birthday on October 30th and then Halloween. (Maybe you don't consider my birthday a holiday, but I do.)
- Good-bye swimsuit season!
Since the official start of Fall, I have decided that I have one more reason to add: Amazing Runs.
I read an article in Runner's World a few months ago about how heat impacts a runner's performance. A runner must exert themselves at a higher level to run in heat than they do when they run in mild temperatures. No Kidding. I learned that real fast when I kicked up my training schedule in June. My only choices - Run at the gym or at the crack of dawn.
How soon I forget how much harder running in the summer really is.
Earlier this month I ran the Army 10-Miler. My plan was to finish in 1:47:30 - a 10:45 pace. As the gun went off and the race began, I felt like a speed demon. I finished my first mile at a sub-10 minute mile pace.
Whoa. I needed to SLOW down. WAY down. I don't ever want to be one of those runners who poop out after mile two 'cause they were too fast out of the start. So I tell myself, I'll slow down after mile two. At mile two, I tell myself that I will slow down at mile three. And so it goes.
I finished the Army 10-Miler in 1:43:04 - a 10:18 pace. I finished at almost :30 seconds faster per mile than I planned. I finished over 1 minute faster per mile than my last 10-miler - I shaved TEN minutes off my race finish time. HOLY... WOW!
On Monday night, my training schedule told me to run 2 miles. As I sat out for my run, I fully intended to do just that. Keeping an eye on my Garmin, I realized that yet again, I was going too fast. And it felt good. It felt good then. And it felt good 6 miles later.
I have a summer and a winter wardrobe. Maybe I have a summer and winter running pace too.
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