October By the Numbers

October is over. Which is amazing, because the only good thing about October is my bestie’s birthday, and then the rest of the month is full of spiders and ugly zombie billboards on the highway. Though this year it did have a perk for me: my sister and I got to see Taylor Swift on the 31st! Woohoooo! 1989 is everyone’s jam.

Dressed as Olaf. How can you not love her?

A lot of good running-related stuff did happen this month so I thought I’d recap it in a quick lil list:

October By The Numbers

1 – half marathon! My second, and I’m much happier with my performance though I still feel like I can improve a LOT on how hard I push myself in races.

2 – giant batches of homemade cookie dough I devoured. Actual baked cookies hardly happened.

4 – runs with Reecy

77.11 – miles run

9,002 – calories burned. HAAAYYY!

5,475 – times I have run past my coworker’s house. I just learned that we live in the same neighborhood, and his house is right on my way out of the neighborhood, so I can’t NOT pass his house on my runs. It’s a little weird because now my eyes are unable to not look at his house every time I run by.

creeper status

Returning to Training

My last run of October was an interesting effort. I inadvertently took the week off after Cocoa Beach, minus a little run/walk catch-up with an old friend from high school. I had some workouts planned, like another attempt at Barre Revolution (which they wouldn’t let my sister and me take because we weren’t there early to sign consent forms…erg), and a short run which was replaced by a waxing session (I like to think of bikini waxing as a supplement to marathon training. Because really, if I can do that to myself, I can endure anything.) Anyway, finally Saturday morning I got to run down a quiet country road in Tarpon Springs.

I trespassed upon this adorably tiny island. When I was crossing the bridge I heard a splash that sounded suspiciously like an alligator, so I didn’t spend much time there.

My legs were okay and wanted to go faster but my lungs were not having it. I was definitely feeling the effects of taking a week off.

There is a duck/chicken/pig farm on this route and it always makes me smile! This time I heard the ducks squawking from almost a half mile away, all mad about something. My duck-whisperer sister would probably know.

Angry ducks.

Sup.

There were a few hills after the farm and I was struggling a little bit. The pace wasn’t too hard, but I felt like I was having to teach my legs how to run again. That sounds dramatic after only a week off but that’s how it felt. Lol.

There are HUGE houses on this road – like the kind of houses that have a separate 6 car garage and another separate boat garage. I passed this weird Coliseum-type house and wondered why in the world someone would live inside a circle. Where do you put the couch?

House? Library? Observatory? I don’t know.

Then I hit a massive hill, which I was oddly able to power up quite easily. I guess Cocoa Beach didn’t challenge those muscles. After the hill I forced myself to keep jogging until the end of the road to bring me up to 4 miles, but really it came to 4.5 miles which was a nice surprise. I was still nearly a mile away from Matt’s parents’ house and I didn’t want to run anymore, so I walked the rest of the way home and talked on the phone to my Momma.

My childhood summed up in a picture. But in Kentucky, not Tarpon Springs.

I recovered with my feet in the pool, overlooking this gorgeous view:

I’m following a pretty rigorous training plan from Runner’s World to help me get faster. I had to jump in around week 8, so I’m easing myself in to it this week. There are actual speed workouts for me to follow! I’m pretty excited about it. It’s nice to have the next two months to just train and not have to think about a race for a little while.