Where's the Beach?

I had wanted to title this post "The Miles Fly By With a Little Help From My Friends" (a la the Beatles), but it was a bit wordy. But, it's a preface as to how my long run went on Saturday. Somehow we ended up skipping fall temperatures and dove straight into winter. Other than frozen frozen fingers, the downside is trying to figure out how to dress for the cold weather all over again. In other words, how to listen to your rational brain and NOT over-dress. Your body it screaming at you, shivering from the cold. It's saying, "wear more clothes." But then you know deep down you're going to warm up, eventually. And if you're like me, you have some long-sleeved tops that are heavier than others, some that block wind, some that don't, so then you have to figure out how to arrange all that. Saturday morning I debated my attire over and over and finally just went with short sleeves under one of my heavier tops (wind blocking). Was I over-dressed....

Well, it's Friday. That means Fun for Friday of course - as well as the Happy Friday Dance! It also meant my long run for the week. This morning I accidentally set my alarm 10 minutes earlier than what I had meant. That meant a 5 am wakeup call rather than a 5:10 wake up call. And yes, those precious 10 minutes do matter. It was thundering with spotty lightening when I rolled out of bed. The plan was that Jason was going to run a couple of miles with me, then I was meeting Amy to run the rest of the miles. My goal was to get in 10. It was sprinkling a little before we headed out. Jason actually asked, "Are you really going out in that?" Um, yes and so are you buddy. It wasn't bad though, the rain part. The humidity, however, was oppressive. I need to grow gills apparently. Have I mentioned before how much I hate humidity? No? Surely I have... The rain stopped completely by the time I met up with Amy. Man I missed that rain. We were both dripping as if we...

Run Dates This morning Jason and I rolled out of bed and got ourselves ready for a run. The plan was to do 2 miles with Jason, then I was meeting a new running partner for another 5 miles for a total of 7 miles. I won't lie, I was pretty nervous about running with someone new. And "A" is definitely a fast runner, and a seasoned marathoner. But that can be good for me right? It's sort of a long story, but she used to teach some weight circuit classes at my gym that closed. So we'd seen each other here and there at the gym in passing. Another instructor had mentioned that "A" lived downtown. And I already knew that she ran (overheard a conversation), and I'd see her occasionally running, but we never really talked. Anyway, Saturday I ended making a stop by her house so we could visit, and we planned the run date for today. She usually just runs the neighborhood solo, so she was excited to have someone to run with, and I think Jason likes the ide...