I have to say that as I return from my couple day vacation in Wildwood, its been the wildest weather and running experience yet while being out of town. Out of the 3 mornings I ran down at the beach this week, 2 of the 3 were in the rain .. I’ve never had to run in the rain down there in all the years i’ve been there, so this is the first. Its weird though how you only get the real hardcore runners out in the pouring rain on the boardwalk though .. the recreational runners get scared away too easy I guess. I don’t mind running in the summer rain since you never know if you’re marathon in the fall with be in the sun, rain, etc., so its best to be prepared and be able to run in all conditions (plus it felt good because it was humid). Another strange observation I made while running in Wildwood is that my run times seem to always be off when I run the boardwalk and beyond, i’m not sure if i’m plotting my course properly or not, but I seems to be that I tend to run slower than I do at home, and the courses are basically flat compared to what i’m used to, so I just don’t get it.

So I did take it easy so far this week, getting in 2 just-under 8-milers and about a 5 miler yesterday morning … I rested this morning with no run (for a change). It was a good stepback week overall though, i’m feeling stronger than I was and above all, my calves and the rest of my legs are no longer sore constantly. It took until Tuesday for my calves to stop bothering me as bad as they were when I wrote over the weekend … it was so bad on Monday that my back quadriceps on my left leg started to get sore from overcompensating for the sore calf .. but thankfully it all got better. I did get to swim, and walked and walked and walked (thanks to the boardwalk), so I made up for the reduction in miles this week, although I did overeat somewhat, its just a habit of being on vacation I guess.

This weekend is another 20 miler as we head back to adding miles back up again .. seems its going to be humid in the mornings, so I guess I have to start preparing. We’re in the final stretch before the first fall marathon in September, which is always marked by when I go on vacation, so i’m starting to get the feeling .. but I have to get my workouts in, there’s no time for fooling around now … its hard enough to get up in the mornings with the sun coming up later and later, it was easy when the sun started to peak at 4:55am, now with it being 5:20am or so when it starts to peak, its a challenge to get out of bed, but we’ll adjust…