Final Long Run before Steamtown

For weeks and weeks I had been looking forward to doing my last long run of training before the Steamtown Marathon, just six days away now. It was only 12 miles, and compared to all the other runs I'd been through, it was sure to be a breeze. I was looking so much forward to it, in fact, that I slept right through it Saturday morning. Heard the alarms, but just didn't feel compelled to get up. So I didn't. By the time I actually arose, it was close to 9:00 a.m. Whoops. So I was left with the dilemma of whether to run the next morning, or to try for a long evening run (isn't that how everyone wants to spend their Saturday night?) I opted for the evening run, because I was afraid I'd have the same problem getting up the next morning, and I also just wanted to get the dang thing over with. It would mark a very significant point in training, or rather, the end of training.

Plus, there was one more thing I wanted to do for this round of training that I hadn't done. I wanted to do a long run out at Flatwoods Park. There was nothing new to me about this park--I'd run there dozens of times before with my first running group, but I wanted to diversify my training ground as much as possible during this round of training. I'd done a pretty good job, actually--Lake Mary, Upper Tampa Bay Trail, Yellow Springs, San Antonio, Longwood, and numerous times on Davis Islands and Bayshore. I never got around to doing Clearwater bridges like I wanted to--mostly because I don't know the area, and parking is an ordeal, but I have a friend who trains there now, so it'll happen next training round (which, incidentally, is for the Clearwater Marathon!). But I still wanted to run Flatwoods, so I decided to go there in the early evening and be done before it closed, at sundown. My romantic vision of this run didn't exactly hold up--I was slower than I'd anticipated, it was hotter than I'd expected, and the charm of the park was just a little bit lost on me that day. But I did it. And that milestone was in the books! 

I still have a few more runs to do this week, but I'm not sweating them too much. There's not really anything I can do to help or hurt my training at this point, so I'm going to just try to breathe easy this week. I know from much reading on the subject that the value of resting in the week prior to a marathon cannot be understated, and is often overlooked.

I'm glad I got the run in that evening, because it freed me up to meet with my sister and niece the next morning at the Hyde Park Village Fresh Market: 

She really is that cute. Always.

BFFs.

And later that day, I kept my vow from the previous weekend to do more yoga, and I went to the yoga in the park class that's offered each Sunday at Curtis Hixon Park, which I used to go to religiously. It was nice to be back. And now that the weather is cooling ever so slightly, I'll be more inclined to go regularly again.

Tampa's lucky to have this class. I feel grateful every time I go. Plus, it's just a beautiful place to be.

So here's to a week of a couple more easy runs, just to keep the legs going, and lots of physical and mental rest.