As you might have noticed, I sort of fell off the Half-Marathon PR bandwagon.  More accurately, I jumped off the wagon face first, rolled down a hill, and landed in a frozen lake. There was no getting back on after that.

I could list a million and a half reasons why training and running sucked during half training and come up with a million possible excuses for my failure but, in the end, I think it all boils down to one overarching factor: The freaking heat.

After years and years of swearing that I loved running the summer and consistently hating on cold weather running, I was shocked, but I just hated training in the summer. Running in the heat was like torture. It was slow and heavy and just plain hard. Week after week, run after run, it just wasn’t fun anymore. I wasn’t confident enough to handle my times getting slower week and week.  

Let’s be real, nobody likes disappointment, and not only had I put it out there to the world that I wanted to massively PR, I dragged my friends into the whole thing and then couldn’t even keep up with them for the first mile of the race.

After the race I tried to keep up my running base but I was just plain over it. I dreaded runs, they all felt like death, and I was having a major plantar fasciitis flare up, so I just called it off. Running and I were officially on a break and yoga(link to hot yoga post) stepped in to fill the void.

Now, a month later, my feet are feeling better, my gut is feeling heavier, and the weather is getting cooler.  This morning it was a brisk 55 degrees when I left for work and I was surprised when I caught myself thinking: “I wish I could go for a run right now.”

When I got home from work I immediately threw on my running shoes and headed out the door. I didn’t want any time to second guess myself, I just went out there and started running. It. felt. amazing. I only made it two miles before my feet started feeling tight, but those 2 miles felt great.

I have officially converted to cool weather running.

Up until last year I would literally quite running ever since winter and then pick it back up in the summer. Hopefully this foot issue will work itself out, I don’t want to miss out on my new favorite running season.

What is your favorite running season?

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