I’ve just had one of the best runs of my life (a cloudy day in California!)

Cloudy days in California are special. There was a heat wave earlier this week. Damn 34c (93F) in late October!

But then towards the weekend it cooled down.

This week, before today’s run, I’d run thirty miles.

On Monday I rested. Then I ran intervals on Tuesday (kilometer repeats, eight times), eleven easy miles on Wednesday (on that hot day!) and ten easy miles on Thursday. Easy for me is 8–8.30 min/mile. On Friday I felt pain in my right foot and biked in the gym instead of running. This year’s running has been tainted by a couple of injuries so I’m being careful.

I knew what I wanted to run today: eleven or twelve miles with a few hilly miles in the middle. Earlier this week a colleague invited me to run a very hilly race in Los Angeles in the first week of November. Ever since I started running seriously (the pandemic year!), I’ve been careful about racing. I barely race. But when I do… When I go for my personal best. In my last marathon I wanted to run 2.50 and I ran 2.49. This result is not trivial. Three years ago I couldn’t imagine running this well.

The half marathon trail run in Los Angeles has three and a half thousand feet in elevation so getting a PB is out question. So I happily accepted the offer! It…