The Great Outdoors

My last post got a little heavy on the introspection, so I figured I'd save some of the more practical reflections for another day.

Running outside went really well last week, heat and humidity notwithstanding. I found that the time passed fairly quickly, and I didn't have to rely on my ipod as much to keep me going. The pavement felt great under my feet! I'm sure my speed slipped a little as I got tired, but I never finished a run feeling completely spent, so maybe slowing down isn't such a bad thing to do.

I haven't run outside since I've been home (I overslept yesterday and it had already started getting hot, so I decided it would be a treadmill day!), but I'm optimistic about how I will progress once I do.

The other new experience from my vacation was open water swimming! I mostly was playing around in the ocean, "diving" into the occasional wave, and having a good time, but I did try a little actual swimming and noticed how very different it was from pool swimming! Obviously I knew it would be different, but it's one thing to have a fact lodged in your brain and another to feel the truth of it with your body. Next year, when I begin my actual triathlon training, I'll need to work some open water swims in there somehow. I just hope I can find some water as pleasantly warm as the ocean off of South Carolina in August!

Now that I'm home, I'm settling into my new routine of morning workouts and focusing most of my energy on my running. For now, the swimming is just a cross training tool for my non-running days and I won't give it much more thought for a couple of months.

COUNTDOWN TO 5K: 3.5 weeks!!