Self Unrecognizable

Yours truly has been undergoing some amorphous changes over the past few weeks.  I hardly recognize myself these days!

OK, maybe not quite THAT amorphous or THAT unrecognizable.

(I hope.)

To elaborate on my amorphous changes: 
I used to do ALL of my weekday training runs in the late afternoon or early evening, and my weekend long runs starting at 8:00 or 8:30 AM.  I also used to struggle to get to the office by 8:45 AM most mornings.  (Maybe "struggle" is not a strong enough description.  More aptly, I used to scream bloody murder when the alarm clock went off on weekday mornings.)

However, in the past few weeks I've been able to get up at 5:45 AM with relative ease to go running before work.  I have been getting into the office by 8:00 or 8:15.  And I have been starting most of my weekend long runs anywhere between 6:00 AM and 6:30 AM.

Woo hoo!

Yes, I will freely admit that these amorphous changes have been driven by necessity.  In short, the brutal summer heatwave we've been experiencing has made me realize that I can either get up at the crack of dawn to run in relatively cooler temps... or I can sleep in and then go running in conditions that would make igneous lava rock turn back into liquid hot magma.

I have seen regular occurrences of liquid hot magma oozing along the sidewalks this past summer.  Haven't you?

On second thought, does the picture of the liquid hot magma remind you of the amorphous blob picture above?  (I always said that I didn't believe in coincidences... but I digress.)

Beyond the fiery heat, last week I started a new career (which has been awesome!) and these first few weeks have required some heavy work hours.  I've been getting home too late each night to go running after work.  Therefore the only time to get my runs in has been early in the morning.

Finally - I've been driving to my new office these past few weeks because of my long workdays.  Parking is at a premium unless you get there early.  More motivation!

Dare I say that I am starting to morph into a morning person?

Parting the Red Sea

Another case in point: I met Erin this morning at 6:00 AM to go running before work.  When I do early-morning weekday runs alone, I usually push myself to do about 3 miles and then call it a running day.  I had every intention of doing the same thing today.  However, this morning I experienced how much faster the miles can tick by when you have good company.  Erin and I effortlessly knocked out almost 5 miles!  And I felt awesome for the rest of the day!

I am liking this early morning routine.  I wonder if I can keep this up all the time?  Of course, come winter, it might be more of a challenge.  But let's not think about that yet.

On a final note...
To this point, my longest ever distance run has been 13.25 miles.  But I have a 15-mile long run on the docket for this weekend.  I have also registered for the CARA Ready to Run 20-Miler.  Excluding stepback weeks, every successive long run from now until the marathon will be a personal distance record for me.

We are officially down to where the rubber meets the road!