Summer Is Here!

Summer has officially arrived here in Sacramento.  Gone are the days where it rains one day and then is warm the next and then you need a jacket the following day.  That has pretty much been the pattern this spring.  Those days are gone. It's been hot for several days now and today was the first long run in the heat.   Completed 9 miles and felt reasonably strong considering the heat.  Filled up my water bottle at practically every water fountain and longed for the shaded parts of the trail.  The jackrabbits seemed to be out in force.  Saw lots of them going much, much faster than me along the side of the trail.  This will probably be my last long run before heading to Philly in the summer.  I am not looking to doing the long miles in the heat and humidity of Philly.  I figure it is just another challenge to conquer as I strive to continue to progress toward my goals.  

Didn't Make 12

The plan called for my 12th half marathon this past weekend in San Diego.  But you know what they say about the best laid plans...It wasn't meant to be.  I had too much life going on to catch up with so I opted to stay home and not travel south.  I did manage to go out for a 4 mile run in the late evening.  There were two highlights on my run.  It was the first time running with my new phone.  Who knew one could actually fall in love with a phone?  I LOVE my new cell phone.  I was a little behind the times so the fact that I can listen to Pandora and have headphones that have nifty controls on them allowing me to skip tracks is very exciting.  It obviously doesn't take much to get me excited!  And then during the last mile I saw several deer and tried out the new camera.  You can see the results.  In my defense the deer was moving.  It's almost like those hidden pictures from Highlights magazine. Yes, there is an actual deer in the picture.  Once I saw the deer I began my walk break early and it allowed me to get pretty close.  Sad to say that I tried taking about six pictures and this was the best one.  I'm definitely going to need more practice with the camera.

Long Time, No Hills

It has been quite a while since a Thursday night hill workout.  Thankfully two running buddies joined me tonight.  I would not have made it out there without them.  Managed to do 4 hill repeats for a total of 2 miles.  Not too terrible.  I could tell that the lungs were a little out of practice but it was not too bad.  It makes me worried about the half this weekend in San Diego.  My last long run was the half at the beginning of May.  Not exactly the example of adequate preparation.