Week 12 offered something unthinkable not two or three months ago: running in the afternoon. Yes, the temperature has come back down to Earthly levels in such an abrupt change that it took me by surprise. A pleasant surprise, indeed. No longer am I relegated to only running before the sun rises for fear of melting.

Is it hot in here?

All this running in the daylight was made possible by a modified work schedule. I was registered for a Project

Management training course where, on day one of three, the instructor said we’d be out by 4pm every day. Well, he could have said 3:15pm, because I was home before 4 all three days. That resulted in time to sleep in and run. In the same day!

Well Monday and Tuesday I ran with Hazel to start things off. She usually keeps me company on my recovery runs, but she’s not good at pacing herself. I try

to tell her to take it easy but she just gives me a crooked, one-ear-up look and presses onward. Wednesday I actually did get up early. Very early, in fact, to run 12 miles before the PM class, because the weather tried to dupe me and get hot again. Take that Mother Nature! Wednesday also wrapped up my running for September where I finished with almost 209 miles for the month! I didn’t miss a single run all month and really started feeling good about my training.

The weather reverted back to its awesomeness for 17 miles on Saturday. As before, it meant I didn’t have to get out the door by 6:30am. Leaving at 8am, I really enjoyed the clear blue skies and 70* temps. Unfortunately, so did half the city, so the running paths were a bit congested. I felt like I needed a tissue to clean everything up. Gross.

Another week over 50 miles, with an overall pace that’s nothing to scoff at. The sad news is, my heart rate monitor flat lined. Though to be honest, I’ve become so reliant on it, I first had to check that I had a pulse before concluding that it was actually the HR monitor, and not me, that had died.