With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams...

92 degrees by the time I woke up.  Not gonna happen today.  93 outside during the evening news... Really not gonna happen today.

Finished reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo...interesting book.  Probably going to get the other 2 and devour them before I have to go back to work..

started slow, but eventually got in a groove.  Had to stop & take a phone call and forgot to stop garmin while I stood there & tried walking in circles.  That put my garmin pace off a bit.  It said avg pace was 9:49.  .3 miles of walking/stopping...oh well.

90% humidity 78 degrees.  glasses fogged up by .2 miles so I took them off & ran blind.  Not blind enough to miss the dead kitty.  Poor thing.   The cattle at the ranch were lowing at me today...usually they just stare.  I think they were cheering me on..."mmmrrrruuunnnn."

Hodge-Podge run.  A little of everything. Then a shred 1.

warm up mile, fast mile, recovery pace miles with hills, and a little walk in the middle to cool down because my red "engine overheating" light was on.  When will it cool down????

weather: hot & humid.  no cloud cover- sun was up.  I'm mmmeeeeeeellllllllting.

no roadkill sightings today. Lots of stubborn drivers who won't give me an inch of road to run on, so I end up trompling through the sand and grass of snakeland on the side of the road.

thank goodness for watermelons waiting at home :-)

This is a whiney pirate blog today, so if you're not in the mood to listen to me whine, walk the plank & abandon ship now.

It was hot and humid.  81 degrees at 5 am when I woke up. when we started running around 6:20, it was still around 80 degrees with 76% humidity.  It would have been okay for shorter runs I guess, but we were going long today and by mile 8, my shoes and socks were soaked and it felt like I was running in a swamp inside my shoe.  The sweat just pooled up inside my shoes..it was disgusting.  Luckily I didn't get any blisters.

I carried 2 water bottles, and had 1 gu at mile 7.  I think I could have used some gatorade somewhere in there too, but didn't have anywhere to carry something else.  I had my phone inside a ziplock back in my back pocket, and my shorts got so saturated with sweat and heavy that with the additional weight of the phone, they started slipping down in the back as I was running.  I looked like a gangster with my pants saggin' and baggin' on the back of my heiney.  It got so bad I had to stop and cinch up the drawstring super-tight around my waist to prevent un-due distress to Wyatt since she was running behind me. :-)

We ended up taking a couple little breaks to stretch out a side ache, take a road-kill pix, talk to the owner of the sheep that chased us last spring, etc.  The breaks were appreciated.  I don't think I let myself recover enough yesterday in prep for a long run today.  I could tell I was still sore from the shred video.  Tomorrow, I'm just going to bag running and take a nice long bike ride. 

Fabulous road kill today.  My camera phone is on the fritz, but we saw an opossum that was pretty much just fur and a backbone, an upside-down recliner on the side of the road that smelled like it might possibly have a dead person pinned under it, baby copperhead snake, baby fawn (super, super, super tiny...must have been a newborn), and a kitten that was so smashed up he could have been mistaken for a small panda bear or little skunk.  We hit pay-dirt on the roadkill.  It has a lot to do with the location of our run.  More country=more kill.

If Wyatt sends me copies, I'll put some of our treasure pix up.

We finished the run and had a tasty protien smoothy.  Then I showered and took my kids to the beach for the afternoon.  It was really nice, but I'm not sure I enjoy going in the water as much after watching shark week as I did before.  Next year, we might have to put a ban on shark-week viewing. 

sleep and bike ride- nice way to spend a Friday.

30.93 miles in 2:43.  that's a 5:16 pace! Avg overall was 11.4 mph. ..never gonna happen anywhere but on my bike.   Went out strong for the first 1 hour & 15 min.  Then I stopped to take a break from the heat and the seat.  When I got back on the bike, it seemed slow going.  I finally got my groove again, and then it was time to turn back north & head home.  Well.... there was a wonderful stong breeze blowing from the north.  It felt so good to have a breeze, but it did make my riding a little slower.  That and the fact that my legs were getting a bit tired too.

first lap 1 hr 15 min- 16.27 miles= avg 13 mph

second lap (after the drink break) 1 hr 27 min- 14.66 miles= avg 10 mph

glad to get home and walk off the bike a little

saw one dead rabbit, one dead bird, and one URK (unidentifiable road kill). 

wore a camelbak and liked the convenience of it.  Wondering if there are any good ones out there for running.   They're more comfortable for me than a belt & bottle combo.

I did my long run Thursday, so today was just a medium run.  I worked on trying to keep my pace where I'd like it to be rather than where it has been lately.  Not fast (gonna save going fast for Ricky Bobby) - just a pace that I know I can run effieciently at and is a pace I've found a groove in before.

I've never run the p-town by myself before, but ended up not having any problems other than dogs.  The lady sat on her porch talking on her phone while her dog ran out into the road and chased me.  I got the pepper spray ready, but he never came at me, just barked and chased me.  I couldn't believe the lady just sat there like a bump on a log.  Call off your freakin' dog, woman!

Paces were: 10:00, 9:14, 9:16, 9:18, 9:28, 9:25, 9:07, 8:36.  then I walked a little and finished with a cool down of .7 at a 9:40.   Miles  5 and 6 were where I stopped to get ice at the gas station (refill my water bottle) and where I stopped to gu.  I turned off my garmin when I did those things, but I think it made my time slower and made it harder to get back in the groove. 

overall avg pace was 9:20.  Pretty much where I wanted to have it, so it's all good.

On a non-running note, my daughter got a chicken last night.  It was a stray that was being chased by dogs.  The lady who found it has chickens, but they're all bigger than this little chick and were pecking on it (as chickens do...).  So now we have an ugly chicken.

Not sure if it's a boy or girl chicken yet.  Time will tell.  No name for it either..we just call it "ugly."  My daughter is in love with the little thing.  Here's a pix of her holding it.  Any suggestions for a name? (other than fartlek?)