WELL, THAT HAPPENED FAST!

With this, I never have a legitimate excuse.

Seems like just yesterday it was sunny outside and I was worried about hydration and overheating. Honestly, the weather in Portland stays really warm through September, so all the way to the Portland Marathon I was enjoying, for the most part, the nice weather and it was even a little too hot on marathon day. I took about a week off after the marathon to recharge and all of a sudden it's like winter outside!

Really hard to be motivated to get back into it when you are now facing down cold, wet, and dark compared to sunny, warm, and bright when you last left off. I'm going to have to get used to it though... I suppose I almost made it to November, so now I'll only be suffering until Daylight Saving Time starts again on March 9th. Just a touch over four months away. I can do that!

Last Wednesday was a good example. I ended up having a work event that caused me to miss my group run. It was raining buckets all day and pretty windy to boot. By the time I was ready to run the rain had died down and I was facing a run by myself in the windy dark with a chance of sprinkles. I was being a baby about it, so I ended up paying $4.50 to go run laps at the indoor track for the first time this season. Apparently 42 laps around the gym was more appealing!

I got it done though. And that will be the important part. I always have the indoor track, so I honestly have no excuse. At some times it'll just be a cost/benefit analysis of running outside or shelling out $4.50 to run circles inside. I know I hate running at night, but are the darkened streets really less appetizing than the inside of the gym? I think I'll mostly just save the gym for nights with bad weather and no run group (mostly Thursdays).

Saturday I arranged a group run with Alejandro and Matt. After last weekend's 10 miler seemed to take forever, I didn't want to have to run alone again (man, I am turning into a total baby) so I wrangled those two to run with me. We did the Sellwood Bridge to Steel Bridge loop around the Portland waterfront and then added an out and back along the Springwater Trail to hit 14 miles total. Matt only wanted to run 10.5 so we set him free once we hit the cars before heading off for the final out and back.

Overall it was a great run at 9:12/mile. I want to start running my long runs around that pace (as opposed to 9:40) in an effort to get faster in marathons. Saturday's run felt pretty good at that speed, the last mile I was a little worn down, but that might have been mental more than physical. The last mile is always the toughest for me. Anyways, off to run group tonight in the dark... probably will do the rollercoaster, but as long as I have company, I actually kind of like it!

Splits from Saturday's 14 mile run. Slower first three miles and a faster final three miles. Steady 9:12ish pace in between.