Happy Thursday! I know I am not alone in saying it feels GREAT outside today. It's been a long, hot summer, but I am more than excited to run in some cooler temperatures.

Training has been going pretty smoothly. I haven't had shin splints come back, thankfully, and no other injuries or problems to note. The runs are getting harder and longer, for sure. There is a part in the Half Marathon Method that says something to the effect of "you may not even think you can finish the training." I know what it means now! With about 5 more weeks to go, I am really just focusing on one day, and one run, at a time.

Something I have been incorporating lately into my runs is trying to mimic the elevation and difficulty that I will see on the actual race route. My question is why did I not think of this before? I feel like I am just now starting to incorporate elevation right when the training is really ramping up. Wouldn't it have been better to incorporate that from the beginning? I hope I am not too late.

The race route will be about 550 feet of elevation. My last long run (also my new distance PR at 12 miles!) was about 450 feet of elevation. It was not super hard, but it was also very slow. The speed and tempo runs are really the testament. I tried doing a tempo run Tuesday on a route that was just 187 feet of elevation, and my average pace for the tempo miles was about 9:25 a mile. Is 9:00 miles too tough of a goal for a route with 550 feet of elevation? I am still asking myself. For now, I will continue with the plan, follow the training and close as I can, and just hope the lower humidity in October and less tired legs on race day will work wonders. One more month until taper week!

In other news, I took an Epsom salt bath the other night, and I highly recommend the pre/post-workout 15-minute soak that has menthol in it. It felt AMAZING on my tired legs.

 To be honest, I wasn't sure what to write about today. The weeks can all seem to run together (no pun intended). Work, eat, run, sleep, repeat. When life gets mundane, it's important to find things to be thankful for. So, I decided to list some small, simple pleasures I have experienced while running:

- When the perfect song comes on at the exact moment you need it

- When a random stranger driving past you yells out the window "Keep going. You're doing great!"

- The connection you feel to nature

*story time*

Yesterday afternoon I was running, and I watched this bird take off from a nearby branch. It came so close to me I thought it was going to hit me. I have no idea what kind of bird it was, but it wasn't small. I thought it was so cool that it didn't see me as a threat, more as part of its surroundings!

- Getting to see your world from a different perspective

- Finding roads and trails you never knew existed

- Endorphins

- Feeling a big sense of accomplishment and confidence after conquering a tough run

- Getting to eat carbs and not feel guilty about it

- Great sleep!

- The complete change in attitude afterwards

- When a driver not only slows down, but gets into the other lane for your safety

- New running shoes

- When you look at your watch and realize you are running faster than you thought, or have gone farther than you thought

- The blessing that being able to run is within itself: healthy body, strength, healthy lungs, freedom

These are just a few. Are you wanting to go run yet?

I leave you with a throwback Thursday. This is from 3 years ago, when Alex and I were still dating (and he still had long hair). He and one of my coworkers at the time ran a 5K. I really wish I knew my time for that one! The name of the race was "Run Like the Devil" and we got these little solar-powered devil bobble heads. I think we all got one because we were the only ones in our age groups lol (Alex got the male one and I got the female one for our age group, and then Micah was in the age group below us). I didn't like that it was a devil, so one day Alex threw them off of the balcony at our apartment, and we watched them shatter. It was fun. We cleaned up after ourselves.

I gave Alex that cross necklace he is wearing for Easter that year, and to this day he never takes it off.

 I feel a day behind this week due to Labor Day on Monday, but the four-day weekend was totally worth it. As the seasons are starting to change and my training gets tougher, I have noticed three main changes in my routine.

The first change is I have been running in the evenings more. For the first two months of training, I was getting up at 4:30/4:45 pretty consistently to get my runs in before I have be to at work at 7:30. Now that my runs are getting longer, and the days are getting shorter, I've found it's easier to run after work and sleep in a little later. This probably won't be permanent, however, because eventually the clocks will change, and I will either have to go back to mornings or figure out a way to run in the dark.

Second, I have noticed my training gets harder later in the week. The training schedule has the week pretty evened out, with one rest day in the middle. Here lately, I have been taking 1-2 rest days, depending on how I feel, and they are either Monday or Tuesday, instead of Wednesday like the schedule has it. Reason being, Sundays have always been long run days. The book has Sunday long run, Monday easy run, and then Tuesday speed/strength run. I have found that after the long run and either 5 or 6 miles the next day, my legs are ready for a break. Sometimes, like this past weekend, my legs are ready for a break by Monday, and it worked out that it was a holiday anyway. After the rest day or days (usually just one day), it is running every day for the rest of the week until the following Monday or Tuesday.

Lastly, I have backed off to just one "hard" run a week. I felt it was a good decision considering this is my first half-marathon and I have already dealt with shin splints once. Instead of one speed/strength run and one tempo run a week, I have been alternating between the two. Last week I did a speed run with half mile intervals, and tonight I have a tempo run of 4 miles at race pace. I am consciously staying aware of how my body feels regarding both muscle soreness (and making sure shin splints are coming back) and endurance. As long as I see I am improving my endurance without injury, I am happy!

This training has really taught me every body, every circumstance, every running journey is different, and in that it's important to be flexible. Also, I just realized the race is only 7 weeks away! Can you believe it?!

I leave you with a photo dump of pictures from my latest runs.