GOOD DECISION.

It looks like "summer" has finally left us. My decision to run this morning rather than wait until after work was a good one, despite the cooler temperature, since it is also now raining, and it is predicted to continue on and off through tomorrow. This is a little more typical for us at this time of year.

My only hesitation this morning was I was getting a late start. The power had been out overnight, and I really had a lot to do to clean up from the night before and get ready for work today, but I finally decided to just get out there. I did not want to--and knew I wouldn't--run in the rain later, and I'm not ready yet to hit the treadmill for any extended runs. Time enough for that in the cold, dark winter months.

And I was glad I did! It was very dark yet, even at 6:45, 28 degrees cooler than Monday, and windy, with winds out of the northwest, actually out of Canada, the weather lady said. Thanks for that Arctic blast!

Originally, I had planned to run for one hour. When I delayed leaving as early as I should have, I went back and forth on 1 hour, 45 minutes, maybe 40 minutes, etc. But once again, like Monday, the legs ruled. I felt good, in fact a little too good, so I opted to stay with the 1 hour plan unless things fell apart somewhere. With the 1 hour plan, I decided to revert back to the run 8, walk 2, just to get the pacing thing down for the half marathon. I'm sure I won't be able to run the whole thing without stopping, and want to force myself to hold a run/walk pace for now, and not do what I did back in May at the 25k, where I ran the whole thing, just REALLY slow. I'm convinced now that regardless of what people say or think, for me the best plan is to run/walk on runs of 1 hour or more. I will save my non-stop runs for the shorter distances. For now.

To figure the 8/2 timing, I knew I had to do six 8 min. intervals, putting me at 48 minutes, leaving the 12 minutes for the walk breaks. The problem was trying to decide where to run. I didn't want to run the entire way on sidewalks, for fear of tripping and falling somewhere, but at the same time I have to worry about traffic on the busier streets, so that meant doing out and back loops. But being so dark in the beginning meant seeing different things when it started getting light out. And not being visible to people in houses, so it didn't look like I was running around the block a million times (I have done that, I have to admit. Maybe not a million, but you get the idea.)

All I can say is, I wish I felt this good on every run. My life would be heavenly! I actually finished with a 10 minute last interval to bring me closer to home, and used the 2 minutes for a cooldown. Perfect!