Tag Archives: run

Around 1:15am this morning I woke up with a nosebleed. I can’t remember the last time I had a nosebleed. It didn’t last long and I was back asleep within 30 minutes. Then, at 5:40am, it happened again. Knowing that I had planned to run later in the day, I decided I would make it an easy run and hope not to have another nosebleed.

It has been seven or eight years since I ran through Cascades Park, in Tallahassee. At one point, I worked in a building adjacent to the park and would run 2 miles during lunch in the cooler months. The City of Tallahassee has put a lot of time and money into the redevelopment of Cascades Park and surrounding areas. The redevelopment includes a 5.2 mile corridor through downtown Tallahassee. I decided to take my new shoes, Saucony Tempus, for a test run. And, decided to try out a new running bra, the Women’s Under Armour Infinity High Zip Sports Bra.

My run started in Cascades Park, I did a half loop through the park, took the paved corridor path to the Railroad Square Art District, ran through the art district and back to the park, finishing with a full loop around the park. Overall, it was a nice run for a humid Tallahassee morning. I was blown away by all the new things I saw on my run. I saw several colorful murals, a 10-foot tall TLH sculpture just outside the park, a concrete skate park near the art district, new apartment buildings, one of my favorite local coffee shops, Lucky Goat, opened a coffee shop along the paved corridor, and lots of geese with their goslings.

I grew up running through neighborhoods in Los Angeles, mostly in Culver City, Venice, Santa Monica, and Mar Vista. My run this morning took me back to the days running in California. I got to smell fresh coffee when I ran past Lucky Goat, saw shop owners in the art district tinkering around and cleaning the space in front of their shops, I passed many walkers, some with dogs, and people with laptops sitting at tables doing work. This is my favorite kind of run, to run through a city, through a community and see it alive with day-to-day activities, and to feel the buzz and life of its people.

Wordless or Wellness Wednesday

Midweek trail run & new Tifosi sunglasses

Marathon Training After a Six Year Break (Part 2): 10 miles to 22 miles

As I neared the end of the 10 weeks to 10 miles training plan, I considered training for half marathon (the thought of training for a full marathon was still too daunting). I decided to use Hal Higdon’s Marathon Training: Novice 2 plan to see if I could use the first nine weeks to get me to the half marathon distance and if all was going well I could continue on to the full distance.

I started the training plan in October and here is a summary of how the 18-week training plan:

Week 1-5: Training weeks went pretty smooth. Week 5 ended with a 12-mile long run. For the long run, I opted to run a 3-mile loop through the neighborhood multiple times. This kept me close to home.

Week 6-7: Week 6 was a recovery week and Thanksgiving, so I did not get all my training runs in but did complete the long run. Week 7’s long run was a 14-mile run and I could not find the time in my schedule for it, so I broke it up into two runs, a 4-mile run in the early morning, followed by a 10-mile run closer to lunch. I was only able to get 9 miles in during the second run, making my long run 13 miles.

Week 8: The 15-mile long run. It took me three weeks get through this training week comfortably. These three weeks happened leading up to Christmas with my long run completed on Christmas Eve morning. I thoroughly enjoyed the early morning run and seeing the holiday lights.

At this point, I made the decision to keep training for a full marathon. I picked three marathons in Georgia, each a weekend or two apart. I told myself if I was ready I would run the earliest one, and if I had to repeat training weeks I could run one of the later marathons.