A little longer than planned...

I ran a little longer than I planned to this morning. I was just going to run up to the church, reset the email server which shut off when the electricity went out last night and run back. I thought maybe I might run a little more than that and make it two miles. Instead, I ran up and reset the server, ran through the park at the end of the street, ran back down to Maple, followed it to Main, ran the full length of Main, turned and ran a loop around Lemon Park, jogged through Sixth Street Park and made my way back home. My two-mile-or-less run turned into five-miles-plus. (garmin data)

Easy intervals, hard intervals...

I saw someone at 5:30 this morning I never thought I'd see that early: my wife! I was getting ready to run and she came out and said she was thinking about running. That doesn't happen...not ever! I decided then and there that I was going to wait to run with her. I was an event I wasn't about to miss.

While I was waiting for her to get ready, I did the first seven sets of my 100 push ups workout. She left for her warm up walk when I had two sets to go. I did them and then walked the opposite direction to meet her. My timing was impeccable. I met her and turned around just as her podcast said it was time to run.

Her workout consisted of three minutes running followed by a ninety second walk followed by five minutes running and a longer walk before repeating it all. The goal for both three minute runs is a quarter mile. My wife ran .30 miles both times. The five minute runs are supposed to yield a half mile. I didn't watch the distance on the first one, but she was at .48 miles on the second. It was a good solid workout for her.

When she was done, she sent me on to run a bit more. I ran around the corner and decided to do another set of intervals at my speed. I did three sets of quarter mile sprints followed by quarter mile easy runs. After the third recovery, I ran a hard half mile and then cooled down for another half mile before stopping to walk. I felt pretty good about that workout. I was able to keep my pace down under 7:00 for most of the quarter mile sprints and I was in the low sevens for the half mile. It was good to do some speed work. I hadn't done anything like this in a long while. (garmin data)

Hot and sweaty...

I am dripping all over my keyboard as I type this report. It is muggy outside. I slept late this morning, getting up well past 8:00. I drank a little Gatorade, answered the dailymission question, laced up and headed out the door.

Before I felt the outdoor temperature and humidity, I had it in my mind to run the same loop I did Saturday in reverse. I even toyed with running an extra mile beyond what I did to make it eleven plus miles. After I'd been running for five or ten minutes, my plans changed. It was awful!

While I was in town, I ran along the sidewalk beside the highway. I had several kind drivers acknowledge my presence. One had stopped in the crosswalk. He backed up. Another pulled up just before I got to the intersection. She was blocking the crosswalk too, but at least said, "Sorry," when she saw I had to run around her. The next guy stopped before the crosswalk.

Out in the country, I encountered little traffic. I almost decided to go for the original loop, but when I got to West River Road, I turned and ran down to the highway and turned for home. Long distance was not going to happen today.

I ran back to the sidewalk and retraced my steps back toward home. I had no encounters with crosswalk violators, kind or inconsiderate, this time. I enjoyed the run mostly, but was glad when it was done. I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible during my cool down walk. I'm glad I got this done early. It's headed for a high of 87! (garmin data)

Long, slow and cut short...

I was going to run 11.5 miles, maybe 12. I mapped my route on Google maps. I ate a granola bar before I left. I drank some Gatorade and poured some more into my Simple Hydration bottle. I strapped on my Garmin and headed out the door.

I felt fine for the first mile or two. I was running easy at 8:30 pace. Then, I guess, my granola bar decided it wanted to let me know it was there. I felt a bit nauseous. Not bad, just a twinge. I kept running and it went away after a while, but my energy level was lower.

I decided to get my mind off my physical ills by looking around at the scenery. The wheat was golden, the trees and grass as green as green can be. One short section of the road was deeply shaded, trees lining both sides so close that from a mile away it didn't even look like the road could fit through them.

Shortly after I came out of the trees, I met up with the road before the one I'd planned to turn on. I was feeling lousy enough to change my plans and turn early. That meant a pretty nasty little climb which you can see on the elevation chart somewhere around four miles. I made it up and over that and continued on south to 1st Street which would take me east back into town.

I ran the familiar sandy surface of 1st back into town. My plan was to cut across the railroad tracks and run straight back home, but a train was blocking my way, so I ran up to the north side of town on the side streets. I was hoping to get to the crossing at Maple and Main before the train started up again, but I was not quite fast enough. The train started up again as I was running up Simpson. It crossed the tracks when I was less than a block away. I ran up to Main and stopped to rest.

Once the train was on its way, I continued on my way, following Maple until I reached 15K. That's when I gave up. I wasn't feeling all that great and I thought I'd get a longer cool down. I walked up to the church, got some water from the outside faucet, then headed home. I made it without dying, but I was dripping with sweat. I suppose the heat and humidity might have had something to do with how I felt, but I'm still blaming the granola bar since I don't usually eat before I run. (garmin data)

A lousy run...

Usually when I wake up and don't feel like running, I get out there anyway and after awhile I feel great and I'm glad that I started running. Today was unusual. I didn't feel like running, didn't even feel like getting up. I went out anyway and I never really got to the "I love running" stage. I felt lousy almost the whole way. I wanted to quit multiple times. I ran on despite all this. I kept telling myself, "You're going to feel like this for miles during your 100-miler. Just take it one step at a time." I had time for another mile or so when I got back home, but I decided to end it at my driveway. No sense in dragging out the misery. Hope tomorrow's long run is better than this one was. (garmin data)

Exploring the countryside...

It was a beautiful morning for a run. The cool breeze made the air feel fresh as it flowed in and out of my lungs. Only once in awhile were there gusts that made forward progress a little more difficult.

The route I chose this morning was designed to satisfy my curiosity about the road I started down yesterday. I wanted to see what it was like to loop around out in the country. I must say, this particular block was not my favorite. There were far too many dogs, a couple of them rather aggressive. Thankfully, the worst of them were on the other side of a fence.

I stepped on a rock funny and twisted my ankle once during this run. Thankfully, it was a quick dip over and back and didn't hurt at all. It was more of a shock than anything.

After leaving the dirt, I ran back through town. A quarter mile from home I encountered a friend out walking her dog and said hi to the two of them. The dog looked at me curiously and then turned and marched on toward home. I finished up my last quarter mile, stopped my Garmin and walked a block to cool down before stepping back inside to wake my beautiful wife with a kiss on the cheek. (garmin data)