It's hard to imagine fall when the temps are in triple digits, but there are subtle signs. This is my first autumn on the Central Coast and I was surprised to see apples at the farmer's markets already. But the leaves are starting to change on the grapevines and the poison oak is bright red! I'm very careful to not brush against it when running in the country, but it grows awfully close to the road.

We rode 30 miles last Saturday and the temperature was 50 degrees at the start. I'm embarassed to say I was freezing! I wore shorts and a cap sleeve top, but I also had arm warmers and a wind jacket on. And fingerless gloves. I left the arm warmers on for two hours, until it finally got warm enough to take them off.

Arm warmers are a clever thing that bicyclists invented, but they're good for runners, too. Another crossover is Nuun, electrolyte replacement tablets. I can't get Ultima at my local store, so I've switched to Nuun and really like it. How handy for long races--all I have to do is drop a tablet into my water bottle when I refill. It's a lot easier to carry.

The temperature was a little warmer for Sunday's 11 miler. I wasn't taking any chances and wore a short-sleeve shirt and a long sleeved pullover. I ditched the pullover within 5 minutes; it was much warmer than I thought.

Sunday's long run was tough! It was Bunny and me, and we started out pretty fast. We followed the same route as last week's 9 miler, but added a couple of miles. The run was pretty hilly, although we had about a half mile of a good downhill. I "flew" down, but realize I need to improve my hill form. I made the same mistake at Nike in San Francisco and my knee let me know it. My average pace for this "long, slow distance" was 11:47mm, with the mile splits ranging from 11mm to 12:20. We ran/walked 6:1.

Registration is open for the Big Sur marathon. I want to sign up, but am, quite frankly, chicken. The six hour cut-off is serious and I made the mistake of reading my 21 miler race report. I guess it shouldn't matter if I don't get a medal, or a finish time; the finish should be its own reward. I did so badly in San Diego, that my confidence is shaken. I want to do a spring marathon, I'm just not sure Big Sur is the right choice. I'll see how the half marathon goes.

SD and I will be going to Tokyo in a little over a week and I'm concerned about my training. I looked up places where I can run, but Tokyo is 16 hours ahead of California time, so I don't know how quickly I'll get over the jet lag. We'll only be gone for a week, but I'd like to continue my track workouts and long runs. There's a track in Central Tokyo that I can run on (gotta love the Internet!), so that will be good.

This will be my second trip to Japan, but the first time as a runner, so it will be nice to add another country to my running memories. In my spinning class, the instructor has a section that she calls seven hills, and it reminds me of Lisbon. Maybe someday I'll be one of those people who travels to foreign countries to run marathons! :-)