Week #3 and I've made a welcome realization: I am feeling better and stronger at this point in the season than I have in any of my previous seasons. I am loving this! :)

As anyone who trains with me knows, I typically take the winters off and join TnT only during the summer months. It's not that I go idle during those 7 months out of the year; on the contrary, I do lots of other activities that I often have to set aside during my running, such as kickboxing, step, heavy weights, circuit training, etc. It's great to get the physical and mental break, but it does come at a price: when I come back to training, I often feel as though I have to start from square one and re-train myself all over again to get back the running-specific endurance I've lost. The ugly truth is, no matter how fit you are in general, if you don't run regularly for more than a few months, you will definitely lose a lot of those gains--at least this is what I've discovered for myself.

So the first 3 weeks of any season I am usually miserable, trying to keep up with my much stronger/fitter running buddies and wishing I had been more diligent about running in the off-season (instead of cursing the cold, the rain, and the dark). But this time around? I feel super strong and have even started to experiment with longer intervals again. A few seasons ago, I had gotten up to a 6:2 (6 minutes running, 2 minutes walking) interval, but due to not running in the off-season, I couldn't get back to that the following season, and have since stuck with a 3:2. I'm now trying to shake myself out of that rut and much to my surprise, it's actually WORKING. I think the difference really is that aside from the 2 weeks following my marathon (when I was sick as a dog), I went back into running and didn't miss a beat.

In the last 3 weeks, I've run 6-8 miles for my long runs and have felt great--I know this because I end each run thinking, "I can't wait to get back out there and try to run longer or faster or both."

Things bode well for the rest of the season, I hope!!

Season #6, officially underway

Back in the day, when I was a TnT newbie, I swore up and down I'd never do Winter season. Training in the cold, the dark, the rain? Yeah, no thank you.

And yet, it seemed fitting that in a year when I did something else I swore I'd never do (26.2 miles, natch) I'd follow that up with another challenge. If I learned anything from the marathon experience, it's that no challenge is too big now.

I hope I don't end up eating my words in a few months ;).

One week into the season, and we've already had run # 2 today, at good ol' Campbell Park, aka my regular 'hood for the weekly buddy runs. Because it is early in the season and participants are still getting their feet wet with the training, it's more important than ever for us mentors to step in and make sure they are well supported and have folks to show them the ropes. Janine, Robin, Julie, and Dianne and I have been running with the newbies this past week to get them comfortable (and hopefully enjoying it all :)), so to make sure we could also get our training in (Napa in less than 4 months--we've gotta kick our butts into gear to get our pace up to snuff!), we met for a "pre-run" run: a 4-miler as a prelude to the mileage we would run with the participants.

I ended up doing 7 miles in total--an extra 3 added on for good measure. Right on track with where we're supposed to be in the training AND we got to help out the peeps!

Upping our pace is going to require lots of trial and error over the next few weeks and months. I'm sure we'll have some set-backs along the way, but I hope they're overshadowed by many, many more triumphs, ala the now legendary Natural Bridges 20-miler.

Here's to what's ahead!!