October First

This is one of my favorite times of year for running. On the one hand, it's about the time of year that running outdoors becomes complicated. The mornings begin to get darker (and the new Daylight Savings Time schedule this year means I won't get the short reprieve when the times change) and my schedule gets fuller in the afternoons and evenings, which makes it hard to find times to run outdoors. I begin using the treadmill more and the city streets less and running outdoors starts to become more a treat and less a regular routine.

But on the other hand, when I do get to run outdoors they are among the best runs of the year. The temperatures range from mild to crisp, but almost never uncomoftably warm or cold. And the neighborhoods around town are beautiful. Right now Ann Arbor is still mostly green, but the green is turning gold and purple and rust-colored around the edges, with occasional ostentatious splashes of red-orange or bright yellow. Leaves have begun to fall, too. They aren't piling or mouldering yet, just blowing across the streets and sidewalks.

I also discovered a new run this past week. There aren't as many options for running in my new neighborhood (and that's just fact, not unfamiliarity with the territory), but I did some exploration last Monday when I was feeling good on my run, turning left instead of my normal right at one point, and this opened up a whole new side of town that I knew existed, but had never had reason to explore.

The other good news is that I'm pretty much back to my regular running capacity. Last week was the first week since my foot began bothering me that I was able to pull off what I would call a normal weekly mileage. It was at the lower end of my normal weekly mileage (especially compared to right before my foot injury) and will probably stay there because I'm going to make myself cross-train or rest at least a couple days a week over the winter so that I don't unintentionally aggravate my metatarsalgia and kill my hopes of running another marathon next year before I can even start training. But it was a normal mileage nonetheless, and it's always a relief to finally make it back from an injury.