It's that time of year when the weather is so oppressive that even waiting until after 7:00pm offers little relief from the heat and humidity. So I have switched my weekday runs mostly to mornings. This week, I have completed an astonishing three runs all before 8:00am (I know, that's not terribly early, but I don't have to be to work until 9:00am). I did two six-milers and a nine-miler. Here are the pros and cons, as I see them, of running in the morning versus the evening: Pros My workout is out of the way for the day. I'm more energized going into work. My evening is free. I can do household chores that often get neglected, cook dinner, go to yoga--the options are endless! I get some solo running time. I get to see the sunrise.  Cons It's more challenging to get started. I'm likely to eat more throughout the day at work (more than necessary). I'm too tired in the evening to do productive things. I (sometimes) miss running with friends in ...

I'm in about my seventh week of marathon training for Steamtown Marathon  (I didn't have an official start date--or plan--but started doing long runs some time back). Eleven more weeks of training remain. So far, so good. Yesterday morning I ran 15 miles with my friend and training buddy Nicole, and it was (for me) significantly better than last weekend's 12 miles. Part of this was because I'd just started to feel the effects of doing 13- and 14-milers for several weekends in a row without brining my mileage down, but what also helped yesterday's run was that I got to use my new GPS watch, and new running things always make a run better :) Last weekend, while running the 12 brutal miles at Upper Tampa Bay Trail , my old trusty Garmin Forerunner 305  (now discontinued and significantly more expensive than when I bought it) gave out on me. It had been giving me problems since the Nike Women's Half , back in April, mostly not charging properly and taking an extr...

Time has really gotten away from me, as I write this post more than a month after my last one. Fortunately little of note has occurred in the interim, but I have accomplished two significant things in my running life recently: I began training for the Steamtown Marathon, and  I ran another PR 5k race and won my age group!  I'll get to the training in a later post, but first things first. Lutz Independence Day 5k Since the earliest conversations I had with my boyfriend, Tim, a native of Lutz, he has talked about this 5k race. This is understandable, as it was the first 5k race he ran, which launched a significant lifestyle change for him; it was in his hometown; and it was the first race he ran with his dad, a longtime runner. He would tell me in the earlier stages of our relationship that if we were still together by July 4, I should run the race with him, his dad, and his cousin. I generally stop racing in May--maybe June, but even that's pushing it in the Florida h...

I've been in somewhat of a summer funk lately. It hits me every year with the onset of summer: work slows down dramatically, running gets tougher with the onslaught of heat and humidity, and I feel overcome with restlessness and a lack of focus. I blame it on idle time--something I've never been good at handling--and summer just seems to encompass idle time, does it not? While I've never quite figured out how to beat these blues, I've found recently that focusing on breathing is helpful, both in stillness and in physical activity. This is no great discovery; the benefits of breathwork and conscious breathing have been heralded for decades in Western society (and since Ancient times in the East), largely alongside the rising popularity of yoga, which in its most basic form is a focus on the breath. However, as a lifetime asthmatic with numerous environmental sensitivities, I've always struggled with breathing. Not focused breathing or breathing exercises, but merel...

As the summer began with a flourish of outside activity and appreciation for the climate where I live, so it exits and in its place comes fall. Recently I attended a pool party at a faculty member's house, and as though aware that I would likely not go in a pool for many more months, I remained submerged in the pool and later the hot tub for nearly five hours, floundering in the weightlessness of the water. The truer reason I remained in the pool was because three big friendly dogs occupied the inside of the house and even the outside patio, and I was only safe from them in the water. As typically occurs, the dogs pounced on me as soon as I entered the house, somehow sensing that I was allergic to them, and after about fifteen minutes after my arrival and two attempted tongue baths therein, I made for the protection of the water, hoping the dogs could not swim. I suppose it is fair to say that I also stayed in for so long out of fear of making an exit. As the only adult in the p...

Even though it is still technically spring time, the summer college semester begins in one week, the weather is consistently sunny and mid-80s, and baseball season is in full bloom. I embrace this time of year as a time to extend my outside activities beyond my nightly walks, to bike rides, benefit runs, beach days, and a newfound interest in softball. Yesterday Joe and I began the day with a 7:25am 5K run to benefit the Child Abuse Council . One of Tampa's largest and most regular 5Ks, the Gunn Allen Financial May Classic brought out over 1,500 of Tampa's athletes and do-gooders. Since it was a last-minute decision for us to register, we did not have a a chance to train, but we had both been keeping a somewhat regular exercise schedule in the weeks leading up to the run. Our goal was to finish, preferably to finish running. And we did. 36 minutes of concrete pounding, rhythmic breathing, and humanistic awareness, and we had completed our first 5K together, having run th...