Fifth day in a row of running! And purple hair.

RUN 13.1 miles in 2:07
BIKE COMMUTE 9.5 miles

On the bike to work I start wondering why my legs are so dead. Then I do the maths: 11+8+6+5+13 and realize I'm 43 miles into a 5 day stretch of running! Thankfully I'm taking the next two days off. No 'short 2-miler' tomorrow with the Thursday group. Even if 45 is a nice even number!

I meant to start of 6 but didn't roll out until 6:24. Just slow. Alarm goes off at 4:30, slept in to the next alarm at 5, then just slow. (but happily I can report that my gut is now two days of normal, since Aug 30th!). As with yesterday it's hot and humid, but we're used to that...right? Yes!

I head east towards the river and take a more wandery route so my usual 10-miler can stretch into a 13. I finally get to that ped bridge over I-55/I-44 that I wanted to find a few weeks ago. I wander in new-to-me areas of Soulard (lots of great old rowhouses!), up to LP, water from the corner gas station at 6 miles, and at this point I just want to rest a walk a bit. I hit a low energy point.

Then to CH area where I see old neighbor with Xena and a new guy Sidney! He's got both ends of the spectrum now -- a wiener dog and a tall long legged lean-machine racing greyhound. Off around CHP, down to TGP, up around MoBot, and happily hit the goal of 10.5 at the water fountain. That leaves just the run to home without extra loopy loops to round up the distance.

Oddly the last half of the run went much easier than the first. Thinking a lot about Saturday's race, telling myself that when I hit this distance on Saturday I won't even be finished with the first loop. I won't be posting here again until after the race, so I'd better get my goals lined up and in place.

Got purple and pink hair today :)

Goals for Evergreen.
1. Don't get injured.
2. Stay on plan for nutrition, the same plan I'll use for the hundo at Farmdale
3. Even pacing for the three loops no fade.
4. *Plan for wet weather and manage
5. Run your own race, let go the time and placing and other runners.

*Called up the weather for the race before typing this one. 80% chance of rain Friday morning, predicting 0.95 inch. T-shorms "likely" in the evening, low 67. So good temps but eeek for camping! Saturday forecast only 50-60% chance of rain in the morning, then partly cloudy. Predicted high only low-mid 70's. d

Third day in a row of running with others

RUN 5 miles in 51 mins
BIKE COMMUTE 9.5 miles

EW and I ran together last Tuesday and it was fun. So we planned to do it again for today, last mentioning the idea at the end of Thursday's run. I didn't hear more about it until 3:20 am today when I woke up to pee and checked the phone to catch the time. At 10pm, she texted about running today at 5:45am! So I reset my alarm for 4:30 instead of 5:30. Yes, I'd love to join!

Her friend Tony joined us, he's run Thursday's with us before (he was a the kombucha and kefir run) and we just did the zoo loop. Very humid out, this caught my by surprise and got me wondering what the forecast for my upcoming 50 miler would be. Still need to check that...

Great run, refreshing! And now I only need to do 13 miles tomorrow to round up to the goal of 25 miles ahead of Saturday's race, so I can hit the overall goal of 75 miles for the week. ONLY 13!

Are you running this weekend? Run with JA!

RUN 6.2 miles in 54 mins, 8:43 m/m
BIKE 10 miles to and from gym with extra
STRENGTH 1 hours

This is my day off!? Labor Day Weekend Day 3. JamesA emailed me a few days ago to see if we could coordinate a weekend run. He's training for the Monumental Half in Nov and needed a 9-11 miler. I couldn't join him for that long, but I'll certainly join for the miles I can.

I left the house in the day, ran west on Arsenal to meet him at TGP, then we looped the park. As he's newer to the neighborhood, I pointed out water fountain features and good paths. We were moving at a pretty good clip, and I think he wanted to slow a bit. Didn't mean to drag him.

He's such a positive and sweet guy, and he's getting married in 2 weeks! So conversation was varied and upbeat. We finished the run pretty much running my normal 6 miler from the house and I ended at BP where he split off to finish around the park. I found out later at the Gateway Cup social that he rounded up to 10 miles. Nice!

I was tired the rest of the day, easily distracted and random. Stressed too. At one point had to meditate for 6 minutes before leaving the house to join the club at the social. I wanted to get my housework done -- the shower caulking, laundry, fence painting, etc -- but also wanted to visit at least a few mins. Yet the stress of socializing kept me wanting to stay home!?

Glad I went, JB was there and I haven't see her all year :)

Run with TH!

RUN 8 miles in 1:12, 9m/m pace

Finally got to run with TH! She's prepping for her Worlds race and had a run-swim-run day. I joined her for the first run. I didn't join for the 1500m swim and 20 mins follow up run.

Oh I miss running with her. Talked and talked like we always to. We did a hilly sidewalk run around the WH pool, I worried about slowing her down from her goal training pace, but if anything this felt refreshing and easier than expected.

NUMERICS for the rest week
RUN 48 miles
BIKE 68.5 miles
STRENGTH 2 hours

That came back to bite me!

RUN 11 miles in 1:45

This run started out like many others. I'm planning on 10 miles, I carry a library book that needs to be returned, I have a pocketful of mints to munch that I much early then regret not having later, and I'm spinning around the neighborhood to save on time. It's Labor Day weekend, I'm resting (only 10+8!), and I have what seems like an endless housework to-do list.

Drop the book, run to TGP. A 5k/10k race is being set up! I have to dive off the path for two walkers staring at their phones. I'm really getting sick of this Stare At Phone lifestyle I keep seeing and in all honesty it probably bothers me because I find that *I* stare at mine often and I hate that I waste so much time on it. Hence my SMARTER in September Challenge, well anyway, I said something remarkably stupid to them that did NOT come out funny as it sounded in my head. And I ran off feeling like an idiot, like I should apologize, and thinking they probably thought I was a cranky old luddite runner. Ugh. To top it off, I had my headphones in, so technically I was "on" my phone too.

Back to the run. Around TGP, up to MoBot, wondering if I should swing my Walgreen's on the way to pick up some race fuel for Saturday. Realized I only wanted to race fuel now and I didn't want to eat it today, so I decided against. Then I added another mile to get 11, not sure why.

On the way home I needed another few tenths so I decided to stop by my community garden to check on my hot peppers. Along Arsenal at Texas I saw a black dog on the loose. The dog jumped and ran off. It had tags, I figured it was a neighborhood dog, but didn't see it again after it ran away. Check the garden, pick a few peppers, than round out my run to get 11.1 (for my even numbers obsession) miles by running down the alley along the garden.

Suddenly from behind I sensed the dog and at the same time felt the painful burning pinch of a bit on my back upper left butt. I hurt and this was amplified by the scare factor, the adrenaline rush, the fear. I yelled out to scare it off and the owner heard. He came down the hill, denied that the dog would bite, (the FUCK it doesn't, I said), when the dog was away I checked to see that it wasn't a puncture wound. It burned from the salt too, and already it was welting up red from the pinch. After talking to the owner, watching the dog continue to bark and circle, and calming down I headed home.

I'm not associating the karma effect of my obnoxious words and the dog. Just kinda how I book-ended the run as I thought about it later.

Da Fuk with my GI system and energy?

STRENGTH: 1 hr
BIKE COMMUTE 20 miles, to gym, plus loops, and commute

I slept good last night but woke up a lot to pee. When I went to bike home, my legs were very swollen so I'm going to take a guess (not a hard one to make!) that my body dumped off the fluid. I've been feeling swollen and bloated all week, when will it end? And how will I look tonight? And what is causing it? Extra salt, rest week, sitting...?

So I woke up tired with flat energy. Rode to the gym and had a flat workout. Much much better than Monday's weak-ass session, but still flat. Not a lot of spark. Ride home, pushed a bit on the ride with some 1/4 lap standing on the pedals. Then home to walk dog.

Now all week since Tuesday I've had a return of my GI symptoms, mild but present. Bloating, some pain, cramps, gut noises that sound awful, and T5's as I call them. I've been logging foods and looking for a pattern, nothing yet. Today after M1 I was fairly cramped up and burpy and it made for an uncomfortable ride to work. Got to thinking I might not be able to finish the day, started thinking about where I can lie down to rest in my yoga pose...  But then after about noon or so I'm feeling OK. Energy perked up a bit and stomach calmed.

So what's going on?!

My new batch of yogurt doesn't correlate. I've been eating a new recipe of beef, lentils, frozen beans and spinach with mustard. I ate lots of starches over the weekend. I'm eating 3-5 fruits a day. The lentils? Mustard? Accumulated starches? Ugh. Just wanna be normal, but happy this didn't last all day.

The Gateway Cup starts tonight! Was fun to ride my loops around LP and see the lights, prep, signs, and cleaned streets. BP is on Monday, those will probably be the only races I spectate.

Quick miles with DC, and the September Shift

RUN 6.6 miles in just over 54 mins, so about an 8:11 m/m pace
BIKE COMMUTE 9.5 miles

As per usual I didn't think I'd be able to maintain a quick pace on the Thursday run. In fact, the first mile was a mental chore. I was behind EW and DC, ahead of LC and IT, out of both conversations but listening to both. Kept telling myself, 'you're not even warmed up yet...and it will get better...just get the 2 miles in...". At the summit of Skinker, DC and I ended up at the front and we took off from there. I'll note that the top of Skinker is 2 miles, my usual warm-up distance.

I didn't look at the Garmin during the run so I didn't realize we were going so speedy. Then to top if off, when we reached the dinosaur area DC said he was done and was going to 'coast it in'. HA. We were probably still ticking off quick miles. But hearing this put the excuse in my head and I kept wanting to slow. But we only nominally slowed. To my surprise, this felt good.

And because it was under 70F (70 and over, don't bring Rover) I was able to bring the dog for a post-run walk. The grass was tall and wet, she seemed to LOVE it and her foot bandage held on for the ride. But yuck a drippy wet dog in the truck!

I feel sluggish still at work, maybe because I don't have a defined task or because I'm sitting so much? I just want to put my head down and take a nap. Put my feel up so they don't swell. And I'm craving sweets...but...

Today is the first day of my Sept Shift, just so happens to coincide with a new moon! The day started off perfect, and as of 3:30pm it's still going good. My plans for SN infections fell through, I think the simple excuse of "low titers" was all my mind needed to write that off. I'm disappointed in that, mostly in that I think I caved to the excuse, not that I didn't get the infections done. My goal with this is to Shift some bad habits, I'll only note brief details here if relevant. Also I'm doing a SMARTER in September digital detox challenge. Apparently I like challenges.

Like a recent podcast said, don't see it as a burden instead see it as a challenge. Agree!