After two weeks of real brutal heat and humidity, we finally got some rain, but unfortunately it came on a Saturday morning .. yep, the same Saturday morning that I needed to do my first 22 miler of the training season. I was out of town yesterday, so I hadn’t gotten the chance to check the weather forecast for today, so I was kind of playing it by ear but realized I was in for a rough morning when I got up, and for the first time in awhile… NO SUN!

I got up and then geared myself for my run thinking that it couldn’t be that bad, right? It actually wasn’t that bad, except for a few times when I was in a total downpour. It kind of reminded me of the Flying Pig marathon back in May because I was totally soaked like I had jumped in a pool with my running gear on. Thankfully the downpours were far and few between, and by around mile 15, it actually felt good. The whole run was in the rain and despite the conditions, I still was able to keep my goal pace .. I think I found out during the Flying Pig when I last ran in the pouring rain, that you can really do still dehydrate despite the fact you’re soaking wet. When the rain let up a little bit towards the end, I didn’t realize how badly I needed more water. My fuel belt was about empty and I was parched, but thankfully my local supermarket was near that has an outdoor water dispenser ..

I’m not sure if it was the fact I was out in the rain today or not, but I actually had people honking at me today (in a good way). I hadn’t had anybody honk or anything in quite some time, although I hadn’t been running any courses that took me near real civilization. It kind of gave me some motivation when I really needed it ..

The course I chose today was killer also, I forgot why I stopped running that way every week. Lots of hills, which is probably a good thing, but not for a long run .. I struggled through it. I’ve wrapped up week 3 of training and am now heading into the final week of Mesocycle 1 in Pfitz’s 70/12 plan…

I continue to say how getting into a more formal training plan that actually allows for recovery time during the week is really making a difference. Usually I head into my long run feeling all worn out, with my legs beat-up and just tired, but except for being tired from driving yesterday, I felt good.

So tomorrow is a longer bike ride, I might hit 18 miles or so … just got the bike back from the shop though, it had a problem with the front deraullier where it wouldn’t switch out of the low gears … but its all fixed now.

I’ve been kind of absent from blogging, surfing and tweeting for that matter … just busy these days. Seems I have more time in the winter to spend blogging than I do now, but i’m still out there. I hope the less frequent updates haven’t scared people away …