Fall Training

August is not yet over, but it seems as if a subtle transition into a new season has begun this week.  Temperatures during my Monday and Wednesday runs had dropped into the low 60s, the humidity is gone, and the intoxicating fragrance of fall seems to be in the air already:  a blend of the first few fallen leaves, a hint of wood smoke, and windfall apples scattered around the base of that tree over on Pierson Drive.  The burning bushes opposite Lakeside Restaurant are already turning:

Surely this is the favorite season for runners, especially those in the South who have suffered through the heat and humidity of July and August.  This is also the time of year for distance running in the South, and I have trained for many fall marathons and half marathons in September and October.  I have my eye on the Bethel Half Marathon on October 14, and being as obsessive-compulsive as most runners I have devised a training plan.  The first thing to do was freshen up those painted splits along the one-mile route we normally run around Harris Lake.

This makes it possible for the OCD runner to punch the button on his GPS watch and run 400 meters, 800 meters, mile repeats, and tempo miles, trying to run the exact pace in training that will make possible the best performance on race day.  (Until that big construction truck backs out of a driveway, or Larry's dog suddenly darts to the end of his leash.)  "What's going on here?" a walking couple asked as I got my spray paint out.  "Oh, just making some marks on the pavement," and I explained.  They seemed happy to be walking and not trying to run some complicated series of intervals.

But I have always benefited from training plans and I enjoy following them.  I am no longer flying by the seat of my pants; I have filed a flight plan.  Not only that, I have entered it into my Outlook Calendar and synched it with my iPhone.  So at any time of day, wherever I am, I know where I am going and what I am going to do . . . for the next seven weeks, at least, when I will be living by that timeless aphorism, "Plan the run; run the plan."

Nothing could be easier!  Now all I have to do is run.