First Sacramento Runs

Now that I've moved home to Sacramento for the next year, it's time to start adapting my running to the new city. That means new running routes, new local races, and a new running club. I got in a couple good runs before I left for Vegas. One challenge of being back in Sacramento is that summers are HOT. We're talking high 90s most days with triple digits pretty common, too. With temps that aren't very conducive to running I've been forced to do my runs in the evening when it's cooler. I'm definitely an evening runner vs. morning runner so this would be great except it means I have to run after I eat dinner : / So far I've made it work but it'll be interesting to see how things go the rest of the summer.

Tuesday I was aching to run after taking off an entire week after the marathon. I did a quick 4 miles down the main street near my house and my legs loved it! Had a little knee pain after but with some icing it's a-okay. Wednesday I went out with no specific mileage planned, but was leaning towards the middle-range since I would be heading to Vegas for 4 days with little no chance of getting a run in. I ended up doing 7 miles along the American River bike trail near my house with my dog. The bike trail is where I set my half marathon PR last month and is a pretty great place to run. I have a feeling I'll be doing quite a few runs there over the next year : )

Tonight I went out for my first run post-Vegas, and let's just say I could totally feel the after-effects of all the alcohol, crappy food, insane heat, and sleep deprivation! We had a later than usual dinner so I didn't start til after 8pm so my mom came along on her bike to keep me company (aka she was worried about me running in the dark). I pushed through 6 miles at a 10:42 pace that felt much harder than it should have. There was also a bunch of stuff floating in the air that irritated my allergies and made breathing much harder than normal. But enough complaining! I really need to get back on track with training since I have marathon no. 5, San Francisco, next month. With nearly 5 weeks til then I'm not too worried. I know a couple weeks of sparse running aren't going to make a huge difference, but nonetheless it's time to get back into the swing of things!