L.S.D. was H.O.T.!

Holy crap it is hot out today! I woke up early to do this long run, hoping to beat the heat. Yeah, right. More on the temperature later though...

This run was really tough to do not only because of the heat and blazing sun, but mentally.  It's been awhile since I've run this far and my mind as like an antsy child, "Are we done yet? How about now? It's only been five hundredths of a mile?! WTF?!" I felt like I was running for hours upon hours. I pushed through it, though, pausing to take a picture at my turn around. I decided to go further on the trail than I have gone before. I'm not even sure this uncharted territory was the trail anymore... I will have to investigate.

See what I mean about uncharted territory?? Believe it or not, that was what the nice, smooth, paved path turned into eventually. Please ignore my sweaty forehead in the corner. I took this picture from my arm band and really had no clue what I was doing, or if I even had anything in the shot...

When I finally got back onto the paved part of the trail, I tried to zone out by looking at all the tree fuzz accumulating on the side of the path and all over the water (yes, this path runs next to a river. It's beautiful).

I think the fluff was actually dandelion fluff, from the white circle ones that blow in the wind, but I'm calling it tree fuzz because this stuff is absolutely everywhere! I had to dodge my head around during the run to avoid inhaling the tufts that were airborne. Anyway, the entire path was lined like this on both sides, and the water had a layer completely covering the surface. Thankfully I don't have allergies!

When I finally returned to civilization, I took a rest in the shade from this blazing sun. Little did I know, my car had turned into a sauna. And although I trust the Garmin's weather report, I don't doubt that my black vehicle, sitting in direct sunlight with the windows up (my mistake) got up to 103 degrees. By the time I whipped my phone out it had dropped to a chilly 102 (sarcasm).

 Note: my car clock isn't properly set. It was 9:28, but am, not pm. I definitely think the 78% humidity had something to do with the fact that I felt like a complete slug. And another factor? My beast of a knee brace! I had to pause and adjust it a couple of times because it literally started sweating off my leg...

There it is. In all it's beastly, unflattering-tan-line, sweaty, stinky glory. By the time I finished I had a sweat river running down my shin. I know, disgusting. It did it's job though, because my knee actually feels really good for having gone 7.5 miles. My quads are a bit fatigued and will probably be sore tomorrow, but that's why I schedule my rest days on Sundays! To recover from a hard training week :)

I know the big thing I was curious about for this run was giving my Garmin a good test. Since my iPod shuffle wasn't here this morning I ran with both my phone and Garmin to see how close they were in measuring distance. I'd say they were pretty spot-on.

Really, not a bad difference seeing how I paused my Garmin when I fixed my brace or took a picture but not my phone. Therefore my phone would also have my short wanderings (a few steps each time I stopped) while I tried to get the gumption to start running again. This also accounts for the time/pace difference between the two. When I was running the first couple miles, however, my phone and Garmin were just one hundredth of a mile different (0.01). The Garmin being slightly behind. But for accuracy, I'm severely impressed with both the Garmin and my app! One hundredth of a mile is nothing when it comes to distance discrepancy. The app I used, by the way, is Endomondo. I highly recommend it; it has served me well.

Something else I wanted to address in this post was that little red dot on the outside of my left knee. I wasn't aware there was anything there until I jumped in the shower and it began stinging. My first thought was chafing from my brace. And then, as any rational person would do, my mind immediately escalated to flesh eating virus, or something of the like. Eventually I settled on it being a blister from my devil of a knee brace. However, if you are familiar with or have experience with flesh eating viruses and similar ailments, please let me know what this looks like to you. I'm still not totally convinced on the blister theory...

When the fiance and I went to leave the house sometime mid-day, I noticed a package on my doorstep!! Yipee! My iPod Shuffle that wasn't expected to arrive until Monday the 3rd got here sometime while I was worrying about my flesh eating virus... I mean, my blister. :) Also, my RoadID got here yesterday, and I haven't taken it off yet. One never knows when an emergency will strike!

Speaking of things arriving in the mail, soon a Sweaty Bands headband will arrive for me, courtesy of 'Ello Honey Bee! I won it in one of her giveaways :) To follow her and enter in her giveaways, go to her Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElloHoneyBee her Twitter: https://twitter.com/ElloHoneyBee or her Website: http://www.ellohoneybee.com/

I'm so excited to get another package in the mail! And if you've made it this far in the post (I know, it's a long one) I'll post my laps for this run. If you're anything like me, you like to see where you rank against other runners. Although my running journey is mostly about personal goals and doing the best that I can, I still wonder where I stack up to the general running population.

There you go! I like to think of the splits in the "Moving Time" category as the ones that count, seeing how that's when I was moving. As opposed to not moving...

Oh, and one more thing before I stop. While running, some man had a dog that was on it's leash when I passed, but shorty afterwards, the dog came charging up behind me, scaring the bejeezus out of me. Thankfully the dog was just curious and moved along. However, if you run with a dog or are in an area with a lot of pedestrians (runners or not), PLEASE keep your dog on a leash!! It could be the friendliest dog in the world, but from the pedestrian/runner point of view, WE DON'T KNOW THAT! Having a strange dog approach you is a scary thing. Also, if anything like a bite (or worse) were to happen, your dog may have just picked a pedestrian/runner that wants to take legal action. So to protect yourself, your animal, and your community, PLEASE keep your pets on leashes! I changed it to pets because what if someone has a Kimodo Dragon? That would probably scare me more than a dog if I were approached. So any animal should be controlled in some way when outside. Thank you.

And now, if you have made it all the way to the bitter end, please leave me a comment answering some questions of the day:
Do you own a pet? What is it?
What's your farthest run? Your fastest mile?
And finally, how do you avoid insane heat when getting active in the summer?

Safe and happy running!