7 Weeks Out

It's 7 weeks away from the Scotia Bank Toronto Waterfront Marathon and the plan called for a 16 mile run today. Challenge met!

Weekends call for 2 run days, so that Sundays start on "tired" legs. Saturday's 6-miler fell on the first day of National Yoga Month. In honor of that, I did a balance pose on the Spruce Street Suspension Bridge :)

Glad the heat and humidity has broken. For some reason, Saturday's 6-miler was a struggle. But today's 16-miler was not! Go figure.

I think part of the reason was that I started rested and was well-fueled. I naturally woke at 5:15 am, ate a breakfast, then went back to bed. Woke again and got a late start about 8:30.  But this is what the routine is on race day - you eat a meal 3 hours before race time, so that your meal has had time to digest.

When I started out, the plan was to run to Liberty Station and add in some mileage at Harbor Island or Shelter Island. But not far into the run, I got the idea to run to Point Loma Nazarene University, which is uphill from the planned run.

Glad that I chose the more difficult route and was rewarded along the way and at PLNU with great architecture for visual interest. I'm very familiar with the neighborhood and campus, having worked for a long time in Point Loma supporting the Navy as a contractor. Now I work for the San Diego Architectural Foundation and we plan an event that includes sites, such as PLNU, in Point Loma.

You can see by the photos that PLNU is a beautiful campus, with examples of buildings from different architecture periods, including the earliest Greek amphiteater in the U.S.

The next month calls for an increase in weekly miles, followed by some time to taper. Marathon training really is about consistency, probably yoga too. I'm fortunate that my chosen physical activities complement each other. The yoga has really benefitted the running, not only for the obvious strectching, but also the strengthening of back and core muscles.

It seems like a lot of time spent exercising, but it also allows for time to think and experience a moving meditation. But I don't think of it as exercise, just part of my daily routine. Psst...it's great for stress relief.