Uuuuughh.  Dark.  Early.  Rain.

Weirdness, I woke up at 2:30 thinking 'what is that smell?'  It was not strong, vaguely unpleasant, but didn't smell like food.  Of course my brain latched onto that, and I was wide awake.  I got a little cup with a sprinkle of fresh coffee grounds and put it next to the bed.  Overcame the mystery smell, and I was able to go back to sleep.  I still can't identify it.

Aaaaaaaaaand we have rain.  Thunderstorms this morning.  Then t-storms and rain through Monday.  Prediction is for 9.5" of rain total, with a feature of 4.17 on Friday alone.   And that's before Tropical Storm Joaquin even gets near us!  Fall has come in like a lion.

Looking like URD. I had planned to run early, but DS woke me up at 3:30 and I decided that getting up again to run at 4:30 would be counterproductive. Sleep won out.

RAIN is the word of the day, and let it pour!  We need it.  I've got an easy 40 minute run to do later, and it'll probably be on the treadmill because rain is scary.

I've been discussing race day with Coach and he asked if I was planning on going out with the 3:10 pacer.  lmao NO.  He did say I might want to consider going out slightly faster than goal pace right from the get go, and he is usually very conservative.  Hmm...we'll see.

Morning. I have 5 tonight. Wait, 5?

Why bother?

I ran at the track.

I am having some real problems with arm chafing this cycle. One day it's the left arm then another day it's the right. And some days, it's both of them FFS.

Today it was the right and boy did I dread lifting my arm in the shower!!

After work run/walk yesterday in my favorite San Antonio Park, McAllister Park, which has all kinds of trails, both paved and natural, and all kinds of different routes you can take.  Temp was sweeeet.  At 5 PM it was only 90 degrees - which sounds high for most folks, but for we Texans that is "Fall", lol - and the humidity was really low, at around 40% and dew-point low too.  I did off-road trails - and I could see the San Antonio Parks Foundation and their "Friends of the Park" volunteers had been busy; the trails were nicely cleaned up of rocks, debris, etc,  all the overhanging brush was cut-and-trimmed away from the trails, and so forth, and some of the paved trails had been recently resurfaced, making for a smooth 'ride'.  Made for some really nice running.  I was having such a good time I got carried away and ran/walked for an hour and 4 minutes, ending up with 5.5 miles, my longest outing in a while. I also hit my head lightly on an overhanging branch; slipped on a root and did a "Romancing The Stone" little slide down a dirt hill; and at one point startled some resting deer, who came up from the brush and ran.  I stood stock still as a few of them ran right past me on either side; it was very cool.  Woo-hoo, what a great outing!  Followed up my 'long' run of yesterday evening by getting up this morning at 4:30 a.m., going to the university gym, and doing 3.5 miles, with 5 hills of varying size thrown in.  Surprisingly, after all my twisting and turning on the trails yesterday, my legs felt pretty good this morning and I 'killed' all the hills in good order.  Another nice run/walk and the weather was very cooperative, in the upper 60s, and just the right bit of "chill" in the air.

Morning.  Tempo later.