Weekend 'long' run

Very sorry not to get in a 12-miler this weekend, but really once I didn't do it very early Friday morning, I knew it would be unrealistic and/or unwise. Preexisting levels of fatigue and stress very high, and many hours of work remaining to do this evening, so I set out for an easy 8+ instead of doing anything longer - got c. 90 minutes aerobic exercise/time on feet, not bad, quite enjoyable barring insane mugginess (it is not hot, just mid-60s, but 100% humidity - fairly disgusting!).

My main goal for the week, other than finishing my novel revisions by Friday and teaching my classes well, is not to get a cold!

The Bassman half-iron is next Sunday, and I would of course really love for it to go very well - well in terms of enjoyable as well as faster than what I've done so far.

My main goal is to try and run the whole of the run - I have done Florida 70.3 twice, and both times I was walking the run, the first time because it was my first triathlon ever and the bike ride had taken pretty much everything I had mentally (my only goal was to finish, and as soon as I realized I was within the time cut-offs, I was just beaming, there was no shame in walking!), the second time because I got a calf cramp at the end of the swim that never went away and that basically prevented me from putting my heel to the ground - I felt quite fresh still at the start of the run, but was not willing to court permanent injury!

In any case, the run at that race is what I can only describe as INTOLERABLY HOT - well into the 90s, humid, almost all in direct sun. I am not a hot-weather person, so at this point I just throw up my hands and abandon all goals! Plus, of course, I was very undertrained for both races - I had realistic expectations, and I was glad in both cases to finish, and finish a little faster the second time, but it would have been inappropriate to have more ambitious goals than that.

I'm undertrained on the bike for this one, but I am actually in very reasonable training shape for this distance in terms of the swim and the run, and certainly my cycling has improved a great deal over this season (it's my second season in triathlon, and biking is by far my weakest leg, as you may have gathered if you read here regularly).

So I think that if conditions are favorable and I'm not sick, I should be able to have a pretty good time out there (time in this case referring primarily to enjoyment rather than speed, though I won't say no to whatever speed I can pick up along the way).

That said, if it's a very warm day, which it is well capable of being in early October in this part of the world, I will certainly be fairly slow, and I also (at the other end of the weather spectrum) have no practice doing cold swims and cold bikes - that said, I have a strong physiological preference for cold over hot, so I think I will be able to handle it if that's the case - I'll just ride very carefully for the first miles if my hands are numb! Must remember to dig out warm gloves - my bike gloves do not have full fingers...

Writing this has put me in a mood to look forward to that race! First, though, the teaching week and the novel-finishing...

8 miles easy