And Now for the Random Blog Post...

It's Saturday, 7/30/2011.  Nothing super exciting has happened since the last post, but I am trying to get in the habit of doing more of these things more often, regardless of what might or might not have happened.

I have been on day shift for the past two weeks.  The temperature has been a average of about 186 deg F, with a heat index of about 399.  Yeah, that bad.  It is just so hard to get out of that air conditioned car, with 40 pounds of gear into that blazing sun and standing on the asphalt for up to an hour or more at a time, for a 12 hours shift.  Then once you get home and take off all of the gear, the smell that emanates from the body is nauseating.  It smells like an orangutan had ran a marathon,showered in it's on sweat, and then dried off with a moldy towel.  Yea, that bad.  I'm just excited that the night shift starts soon, and all I have to deal with is the humidity.  Plus one more night shift and two more days on day shift, then it's onto vacation.

Speaking of vacations, we are heading to the happiest place on the planet for a week.  Walt Disney World (enter your woo here_____).  I am so looking forward to this, not because it's Disney world, but we haven't been on a vacation in 4 years, and this will be my three year old's first trip there.  That being sad, I don't know what's worse.  Worrying about spending money on the trip, or all the money needed before the trip.  We just got Tyler a DVD player for the car, stocked up on diapers and snacks for the 8 hour ride, and we have to give the car a tune-up.  Sheesh, this is hard.

One of the highlights of my week was my 10 mile run on Friday.  I didn't know if I was ready for this one.  I had just gotten over a knee injury and stomach issues, plus I had only run 2 miles in about a week and a half, but it had to get done.  This was on of those runs that if something was going to go wrong, today would have been today.  First off, I was planning on getting to Lake Murray dam around 5:30 am.  I didn't wake up till 5.  And because my pre-run rituals my take a while to take place, I didn't get out to the dam till 7.   The temp was not bad, maybe 78 with high humidity and a nice breeze. 

Usually I do the 3.4 mile loop and stop by truck for water and such after each lap.  Well on that day I decided that I didn't want to get bored by doing lap after lap for 10 miles, I decided to run straight for 5 miles, and then head back.  Again the start of my run was not bad at all, temperature wise.  I left my water, and gels in the truck and took off at a slow 2/1 ratio.  I ran the dam and kept going.  Now, that track on the dam is nice a super flat, the hills on either side of the dam are horrible.  I forgot how hard they were and kept trucking for about 3 more miles.  Decided that I was thirsty and failing, and started to head back.  I past about 3 gas stations on the way back, but of course, I didn't bring cash or card with me.

The sun started to rise, but the temp was still not bad.  However, the combination of the hills (and my lack of hill of training) the beaming sun, humidity started to take it's toll.  My nice 10:30 pace with a 2/1 ratio changed to an 11:00 pace with a 1:30/1 ratio.  By the time I hit the dam again, I was wasted.  I ran back to the truck, looked at my Garmin and realized that I still had about 2.5 miles to go.  This just killed my spirits.  I took another gel, drink some water and took off at a 1/1 ratio with about a 12:00 pace or slower.  I just had to get it done.  I finally finished, came home, got some water and an after run Boston Lager.  I deserved it dammit.

I was planning on doing a 5k on Saturday as well.  It was for a good cause; the Richland County Sheriff's Department K-9 unit.  I was looking forward to it, because I was actually planning on "racing" this one, and not just enjoying the scenery.  I really wanted to have a sub 30 minute 5k.  However, no one I knew was going to be there, I had just run 10 miles the day prior, and it's about 45 minutes to an hour away from my house.  Plus I wanted to sleep in.  Oh well, there will be other races.


The weight watcher watch:  I gained .4 pounds, not bad.  I had a few too many beers and excersised a few too little times.  It didn't break my heart, but the weight wathcers app on my phone stated, "It looks like you gained a little."  What an ass!