Is It Summer Again?

I had my last long run on tap for today. Last night, I told Ryan I wanted to spend the morning with Sam, and go out around 10:30ish in the hopes that Sam would be asleep for 1/2 my run. In the end, Ryan didn't get out for his run until a little later than planned, and then Sam kept wanting me to read her one more book :-), so, I didn't get out the door until 11:00. We had been outside taking a walk and playing in the sandbox while Ryan was running, and although the temperature didn't seem bad, it sure did seem heavy out. And then Ryan came back from his run bathed in sweat. Hmmm. I was already feeling a bit undermotivated and hadn't eaten much all morning. Throw in the humidity, and I knew it was likely to be a bit rough. But no matter. I had to go. I had 16 to 18 in mind. Ryan said, run for 3 hours.

I headed out on the powerlines to do the extended dump loop first, hoping to get the sunniest section out of the way before it got too hot. Luckily, there was a good breeze blowing, and in the shade, things didn't seem all that bad. I cruised along pretty easily, but I was definitely feeling tired. When I got back to the Mt. Ararat road, I figured I might as well throw in a few hills, so I went up and over the paved hill, and then back around and up the steep trail Scott has shown us during the Topsham Trail Days run before continuing out into Highland Green and onto the Cathance trails. I was tempted numerous times to cut things short, but I managed to override the temptations and just keep on running. Luckily, the trails along the river are pretty nice and it isn't really a chore to run down there. I was surprised to find that things had totally dried out, and the river was running very low again. Such a change from Monday's run!

I decided somewhere along the way to just run the 7 mile Cathance loop, but ended with a shortened variation on that due to a few trails being too overgrown for me to even want to try running on them. Not to mention, I ended up running out of water around mile 13! This is definitely one downside of the Nathan pack - I can't tell how much I've already had to drink and how much I have left. During the last few miles, soaked in sweat and without water, all I could think about was the crunchy, cold red grapes waiting for me in the fridge! Boy, did they hit the spot once I finally got in the door! I ended up hitting the low side of my goal for today, and didn't quite get to 3 hours, but the 16 miles on the nose / 2:39:12 out on the trails I did get in felt like more than enough for a day like today. Hopefully it's enough for Pisgah too :-)

Sam was still asleep when I got home, but woke up pretty much the second I got out of the shower. Not much time for recovery, but we had a fun afternoon together, and the yummy Coldstone ice cream I just ate more than made up for the lost recovery time :-)