23 Activities

September was a pretty light month, but definitely a good one. My longest run was 15 miles and I had a whole week off from my strength training the last week of the month. I was supposed to do a 50K on October 1st, but I ended up skipping that for personal reasons.

I ran a trail half marathon out at Mount Bachelor, the High Alpine Half, and actually ran pretty well. The trails weren't very technical at all, and the hills were relatively mild (about 1300 feet gain over the course). Unfortunately, there were a couple spots on the course where yellow jackets were active, and I ended up with five bee stings around my right ankle. I had never been stung before, and given my history with asthma as a kid, I let the medic treat them and make sure my lungs and blood pressure were OK. Turns out I'm not allergic to bee stings, thankfully. I lost about 20 minutes from my time, but it was some really nice running weather on some really nice trails, so I didn't mind too much.

Weight training has been going well. I'm particular happy with where my squats are heading. My form has really tightened up on them in the past 18 months, and my bar speed coming up has improved tremendously. Bench and overhead presses continue to challenge me, but they're also creeping back up towards my max territory. Dead lifts feel really light right now. I've got a lot of room to keep those going up before they're going to be challenging again.

I spent some time last month doing some HIIT circuit classes to keep the overall fitness level high. A lot of plyos and core work and HIIT circuits get the heart rate up and make me sweat like nothing else! I'll keep that going to complement the weight training and running.

Cooler weather and rain are setting in now. The trails are soft and not yet a mess of mud, so October's going to be some prime trail running weather. I don't have any races planned yet, but there's a half marathon in the Columbia River Gorge I might do. It's all pavement, but it's relatively hilly, so it should be fun!