September: A month in recap

Woooooah.....how in the world did October sneak up upon us?!?!  I'm not complaining.  Fall is my favorite season of the year.  I am LOVIN' the changing colors, cool, but not cold, yet still warm days.  Sweatshirts and jeans.  Apple cider.  I could go on and on.  Let's take a quick look back on the month of September.

I logged 106 miles.  Not to shabby.  That's a little lower than July and August, but it's fair to say I had quite the stressful and emotional month with very little sleep.  Considering it all, I still think I came out ok.  While I do run daily, 14 of those days were "only" 1 milers.  1 mile in my minimum.  Those days are the when push comes to shove and I don't really have anything to give OR the day is just too busy and I seriously don't have much time to run.  I force myself out the door for that minimum amount of time.  I know a few times that has been at 10 p.m. and it's a really slow pace.  Yes, I debate about just ignoring my run for that day.  Am I really gaining any fitness or running advantage to getting those runs in?  Probably not.  My competitive streak, even when only against myself, keeps me headed out the door though.  I'm on day 125 of my running streak.  I can give 10 minutes of my day to keep that going.  Plus, I'm just really on a roll.  Since starting this running streak I have had less problems with injury for the first time in 3 years.  Yes, I have little twinges here and there, but this is the best running shape I have been in....well for the first time ever!!!!

Something that is kind of new is that 6 times in September I ran twice in a day.  Typically that means I did 1 mile first thing in the morning then that afternoon went out for a longer run.  Twice though I ran 3-4 miles in the morning and another longer run in the afternoon.  I'm taking advantage of having my afternoons free.  Not, as in free, I have "nothing" to do so I might as well run.  Free, as in, the kids are all gone, I'm fairly caught up on what I need to do for today and the weather is WONDERFUL....so why not head out the door for a run?  Also the darker and colder mornings are motivating me to get my bare minimum done right away then enjoying a much longer run in the daylight when it's a tad warmer out.

Looking at things from a yearly perspective:  I have ran 221 times and logged 756 miles.  485 of those miles have been since starting my running streak at the end of May.  I am really, REALLY looking forward to what I'm going to accomplish these last 3 months of the year. 

Racing:  I did not run any races in September.  This time of the year is EXTREMELY busy for me and it's hard to find any free days to race.  At this time I don't have any races I'm signed up for.  I'm looking at Screaming Pumpkin Marathon at the end of the month.  That is a super fun race that is held at night and the course runs through a cemetery.  What can be better than that?!?!?  I'm a hoping a Grey Ghost will run with me.  Although I've only mentioned the race to said Ghost, but I'm pretty sure all of my usual running friends are running the same race as part of a relay team.  So I'm thinking GG would be a great partner to keep me company for 26.2 miles in the dark in a cemetery.  What do you think GG? 

I will likely do Wildcat 50k that running/blogger Larry Sandhaas puts together.  Just about the only thing better than running 30 some miles in the fall through Wild Cat Den is that you can do it for FREE!  Ahhhh, sweet music to my ears!

Beyond that I'm not sure about any other races.  Sometimes one pops up and I do it spur of the moment.  For the time being I need to wait for October to wind down so that several of my kids activities can finish up and lessen our daily load of scheduled practices and meets/competitions.  However, none of that affect my daily running schedule.  That will keep going....one day, one mile at a time.

How did your month of September go?  What are you looking forward to in October?