California is confused. The weather has been cold and windy for a month. It’s May and it’s California, what gives!? I have run in pants and long sleeves more in May than I did all “winter” long. Plus I put away all my “winter” clothing except for 2 pairs ofcapris so I have to keep washing them. Grrr. It was cold, windy and rainy tonight so I decided to stick to my original running schedule instead of trying the new one again. I am so over the wind. Wind aside, I did have a couple of pretty good runs this week.
I headed out Monday after work to get started on the whole 3x weekday running. Running on Monday seems so much harder but it wasn’t as rough as it was last week. I headed to the lake with my new shoes to get in some easy miles. You’d think the cold would make the gnats less annoying but no such luck. Every third mile or so, I ran with my arms flailing around my face trying to keep them away. But no such luck, again. After finishing my run, 3.5 miles at 10:04 pace, I stopped to stretch and take a pic or 2. I tried to get a selfie showing that I was actually wearing a race shirt- Surf City, long sleeves for the win!- but I failed. However I noticed a speck on my face later. I zoomed in and there was a gnat stuck to my sweaty forehead- gross!!!
Sometimes I have to work on Saturday and when I do, I usually get a half day during the week. I love half days. 🙂 To me they seem like an invitation to run more miles. Sweet! I had a half day on Tuesday and I was looking forward to at least 6 miles after work. Thanks to a training meeting in my hometown that went 3.5 hours, I didn’t even have to drive to work town so I had even more time to run. However, my stomach laughed at my plans and I eventually gave up trying. I felt like it was a waste of a half day. 😦 But I did get some laundry done and took a small nap.
Work ran late on Wednesday (it started!) and then I spent 10 minutes looking for myFitbit. When I was changing into my running gear I realized that it had fallen out of my sock at some point during the day. Crap! Luckily I found it by the front door. I headed to the river path hoping for less wind. Ha! Luckily I found a headband in my car to cover my ears. I can’t stand cold ears.
I spent the first mile trying to talk myself out of running. I was cold, tired and my stomach hurt. And apparently feeling very whiny. 🙂 But I trucked on telling myself to get over it. I kept my watch covered with my sleeves since I really didn’t have a pace goal, my only goal was to finish 4 miles. I walked when I needed to and did pause for a break at one point for my stomach. Overall the run felt comfortably hard and I felt that was more due to the wind than the actual running. Then I checked my splits.
Say what?! My last mile came in at 8:15 and I didn’t feel like throwing up? My fastest mile since high school was 8:05, set last fall in broken down shoes, running in a straight shot, going downhill. I thought I was going lose my cookies after that mile. So how did 8:15 seem fairly comfortable? Still mostly downhill, but across 3 intersections and a couple of streets. Huh? How did I do that? Actually the last 3 miles were pretty speedy and didn’t feel horrible. Sweet! Can I do it again though?
As exciting as that last mile was, I was also very happy that I did not have to deal with any gnats. 🙂
Happy Friday!!! How was your week?
What’s the weather like where you are at?
Who is racing this weekend? Good luck Charissa, Jessica, Molly and Hanna! Did I miss anyone?
Slacker Runner 
I’m fairly certain our weather is in the wrong places. We’ve been REALLY dry here (like, fire warning dry) and pretty warm. Somebody should tell Mother Nature to get her shit together.
LikeLike
Oh, I miss dry and warm. Actually full on rain would be awesome but not this perpetual mist and ridiculous wind. Go away wind. This is so not May weather.
LikeLike
Sorry your weather has been so crazy! Great run, by the way!!I’m ready for this week to be over! And thank you for the shoutout!! I can’t wait until tomorrow!!! Have a great weekend 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks! Good luck and have fun at your race!
LikeLike
That’s great! I’ve started running again and we super happy when the voice in my head told me my time at the mile mark, it was my best time of the week…and I got home and realized I went farther today, had the best time of the week, and that my pace was slower… What? I decided to ignore that and just go with my time 🙂 Happy Friday!
LikeLike
I hate when the numbers don’t reflect how awesome it felt. Sometimes I wish I could ignore the numbers more but it’s so hard!! Yay for running again though! 🙂 Have a great weekend!
LikeLike
Thanks so much, chica!!! I am excited!!
Congrats on your great runs! I’m glad you are enjoying them. Even though it’s windy, I think the cooler air is always pretty helpful and doesn’t leave you so out of breath like the heat and humidity does. Overall, we’ve had some great weather here, but some days have been really hot and sunny so I’m trying to get acclimated to the warmer temperatures now.
Your first picture of that tree is really beautiful! I don’t usually take pictures of my runs but I hope if I come across a scene as beautiful as that I won’t forget to document it 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks! I am missing the warm days right now. I normally never stop at that point of the run but I couldn’t help but notice how awesome the sky and the tree looked and I just had to. I’m just glad it turned out since I didn’t actually look at it until a few hours later. Have a great race weekend!!
LikeLike
Ummm … weather here is murder now Fallon we jumped straight into the hot & humid rainy season. We are stuck in a pattern of temps in the low 90’s with afternoon thunderstorms … ugh!
LikeLike
What is with thunderstorms everywhere?! They seem to be all over right now. I miss the heat but not the humidity! Sorry for the late response- WordPress hid this from me!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s an awesome run! The weather here has been much cooler this week than last week–we even had frost warnings overnight! I’m hoping we get the warmth back soon.
LikeLike
Thanks! We’ve hit the low 30’s and 40’s at night too. What is that about?!
LikeLike
Holy guacamole! Nice work! I love that picture of the tree, btw, it’s fantastic. Clearly, your hard work is paying off – congrats!
LikeLike
Thanks! Part of me wonders if it was a fluke but even if it was those are kind of cool. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The weather has been HOT here, and it’s a high of 88 for my half marathon Sunday… Thank goodness we have a 7 am start time.
LikeLike
80’s sound awesome but not so much for a half marathon. Yikes! Good luck with your race!!
LikeLike
The weather has been crazy here over the last few months. Winter was just plain old nuts, then Spring too forever to arrive and it’s super warm now…summer is close for us!
LikeLike
After the pictures I saw of your winter, I have zero room to complain, that was crazy!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It sure was!!!
LikeLike
Thank you!!
Awesome job on your run! I love those times when you look at your splits and are floored to see such a faster time than you expected. Keep up the good work!
LikeLike
I just wish those kind of runs came around more often. 🙂 But harder runs serve their purpose too. 🙂
LikeLike
The weather is finally nice here in NY! Mother nature has been pretty pissed lately and giving us some awesome thunderstorms, but luckily they’ve been at night so I don’t have to worry about getting zapped by lightening on a run!
Gnats are bad here too by the lake. Those things are relentless.
LikeLike
We’ve had storm warnings and some freaky looking skies but they have yet to actually do anything. The wind has been non stop though, yet the gnats remain. Yuck. I love thunderstorms at night!
LikeLike