Dehydration
5.3 slower miles this morning. I ran at 5:45am. Have I mentioned how I love running early in the morning. With the sun up so early I think I am going to continue this trend.
But it was hot and muggy enough at 5:45 for me to get dehydrated. I didn't think this was possible... so I hadn't brought water (I don't usually). After the run I was fooling around at home before realizing I actually was running late (not exactly my fault, the meeting time was switched without my knowledge). In any case, I never got to drink enough water to recoup and after a day of talking nonstop I am feeling the dehydration headache. I am trying to suck down the propel now.
Uh Oh
I say I enjoy running in the heat and what did it do but get really really hot. This morning at 8am the air was so stagnant and the thermometer was already above 80 degrees. We ran about four miles of hills (no fancy watch today so no maps). I find that in this weather I don’t sweat while I am running but when I am done I just start dripping. Oh and perhaps TMI but today my head was sweating so bad (and I wasn’t wearing a hat) that my hair was about as wet as when I get out of the shower—perhaps a sign I could use a haircut.
The sad news is that when we went to book vacation we had to do it such that I would miss the Moon Pie. Oh well, hopefully we will get in some good hiking to make up for it.
Longer and Flat(ter)
Ran 9.5 miles at about 8:30 min/miles which felt good and was a nice recovery from my hill run yesterday. The mapping is causing me endless frustration this morning and I am giving up for the time being. I did try a new route though and while a little hillier and less shady than expected it was a fun run.
Time to jump in the pool!
This may surprise those that know me well...
but I am very competitive. Ran
this early this morning (I think it is really only 5.8 miles). I passed some guy right around mile 2.5 and the look on his face was shouting: "she doesn't know what the next mile holds." Then he fell in right behind me and proceeded to breath down my neck the whole way up the hill you can see around mile 3 in that map. Ridiculous hill, ridiculous man, ridiculous pace he "made" me hold. We get to the top, me first of course (oh mom you would have been so proud), and he stops to "stretch" and says "thanks for pushing me up that hill." Grr, I felt like crap and still had a ways to go but I took a chug of water and hoped he wasn't making the turn I was making. Apparently, he did but he was scared enough by my pace and tired enough from chasing me that his "stretch" and descent took a while. He was a good 5+ minutes behind me at the finish. Of course, I had to go run the
stairs once while he was finishing his run just to prove that I wasn't even tired from the run. Now that I have set a new PR on this course (just under 53 minutes but it was the first time I wore a watch ;)), I can compete against myself next time.
No run yesterday, just some hiking.
Number 4
In response to a comment by tweedledopey I propose #4:
Last summer I spent 7 days a week working 12+ hour days. The summer before I spent all day everyday studying. It isn't that I like running in the heat and humidity, it is just that I appreciate the opportunity to actually see the sun. Too bad it will be ending soon.
Heat and Humidity
I ran 5.3 hilly miles today with plenty of walking water breaks. It was a little hillier than expected since I got a wee-bit lost trying to figure out the neighboring subdivision... this is going to take a bit more effort than anticipated.
It is starting to get quite hot and humid here. Someone yesterday asked how I am so well-adjusted to running in this climate given that I came from the dry West Coast. I am not really sure but here are some guesses:
(1) I started running (in high school) in this heat and actually vividly remember a summer when I would run in Florida at high noon (lunch) back and forth over the bridges (only hills in town). Perhaps my body also remembers?
(2) My diet includes about 1000% RDA of Sodium. Good thing high blood pressure isn't something I contend with. I might also look into salt tablets (mostly because they sound yummy)...
(3) I drink a ridiculous amount of propel. And just a small vent but I hate it when people comment on how this is an expensive habit. I buy in bulk, about 50 cents for .5L bottle, and I usually max out at no more than 6 bottles a day = $3.00/day. How much does your Starbucks cost daily? And for sure this is healthier.
Anyways I sort of enjoy running in the heat and humidity in a very sadistic way. Can't wait for the upcoming Moon Pie Race (and I hope it is HOT ;)). I should really become a little better with the sunscreen though!
Barely Saved
No run yesterday = no post. I worked out on the elliptical, biked for 30 mins (had a new Economist I needed to start reading) and then swam 1000m... the plan was to swim further but swimming laps by myself is something I find extremely boring.
Went out for a run this morning with 6 other women. We were trying to get in a 90 minute run. Storms were forecasted but we thought not until a little later. Our biggest weather worry at the time was the intense heat and humidity. About 20 minutes into the run some guy stopped his car to tell us “a big storm with lots of rain is about 20 minutes from here.” We brushed it off—hey we’ve run in the rain before and we had a great route planned. Twenty minutes after the warning we are heading up a huge hill and see these terribly dark clouds and some lightening far away. We started coming up with plans to hide in the community’s clubhouse or call someone to pick us up. It wasn’t too bad yet though so we kept going, thinking the clubhouse would probably be locked and we could make it back to the schools to take shelter. We head through the neighboring community, getting a little lost trying to make our way back, the sky isn’t looking so good right now. Then suddenly it got real bad: wind, thunder, lightening, but still no rain. And then our savior—some lady (who knew someone we were running with) whipped around the corner, stopped, and picked us up. Apparently, she had seen us out earlier and realized we were going to get into trouble. As soon as we got in the car the sky opened up: hail, rain so hard you couldn’t really drive, and lightening all around. Turns out we were about 3 blocks from our house, but I don’t know my way around the neighboring community and probably would’ve gotten us lost L. Too bad the run was cut short, I felt great! No maps today—the satellites didn’t work too well once the clouds started descending on us.
I might try swimming some more this afternoon.
Everything New
I found some new tools but in the process forgot to work my old ones correctly. This morning I ran with the Y Runners. Didn't exactly sync up my forerunner before heading out with the unfortunate result that the run was ~1.3 miles shorter. I was so bummed (in light of new tools I wanted to experiment with-see below) that I went out for another short run this afternoon. Kinda threw the caution regarding my foot to the wind. Turns out once I got new tools working that when Forerunner is missing mileage like this the whole run wasn't a wash... as my husband would say: it is just as if the first ~1.3 miles of the run never happened for "Mr. Beep Beep".
So check out my new tools (this course was actually an out and back so you can tell where the missing miles were):
Map 1and
Map 2 (be sure to check out all the different features, like "hybrid", on this one).
Ahh, I had grand plans for the blog today but I just spent the last 2+ hours playing with these new tools and it is time to move onto more productive things.
Run 1: ~4.4 miles
Run 2:
2.6 miles Estimated Total: 7 miles
On the subject of new things-
New Critter Spotting: Lots and lots of green beetles on the yellow trail this afternoon
New Gadget: New armband to carry my mini
New Scenery: Grown women in our neighborhood (at pool, in driveway, doesn't seem to matter) trying to catch some rays. Hmm, kind of an odd thing to see for someone like me who has spent a good deal of time in places where "sunning" is looked down upon, but it did bring me back to the time I spent in Florida in high school. The lying out should have probably been my sign that it was HOT and SUNNY and I think New Gadget isn't really good for such days (its heavy/thick/promotes sweat and I am going to get one stellar tan from it too).
You have to start somewhere
I am going to try to start a blog... a running blog, to tell the story of my running and since my running is about my life, my life. I have never really kept a journal before and I am not sure why I have a desire to "keep a blog" but I thought I would at least try. I have noticed some people lately with running blogs and I thought if I run almost every day it will help me blog almost every day (actually I believe the thought was more transitive than that).
Today I ran 3.30 miles. Some day I hope to get a trendy mile counter on my blog but since I haven't really been keeping track of my miles this year (or month) and I don't really know hoe to add that with my blog it'll have to wait. Maybe I will start with finding some software to track my miles. So my 3.30 miles... They were slow (around 9 min/mile pace) and it was supposed to be a 7 mile run that I cut short. I have been having some pain between my toes/in the ball of my foot and ever since I had a stress fracture there some 6 years ago I am a bit paranoid so I thought I would mix the running up with some crosstraining on the elliptical.
This is short--just a start. In the future I will try to start explaining why I am crazy and run and perhaps what "kind" of runner I am. For now, I will look for a way to track miles more trendy than excel.
