Go, you chicken fat, go away!

I didn't feel well on Saturday.  I guess it was my turn.  However, Mike never texted me to see if I wanted to go running anyway.  I was feeling better this morning so I decided to do a longer than normal weekday run.  I ran north up the canal until I got to McDowell Road.  Then I turned around and came back.  There were a lot of runners out.  I saw one guy enter the trail with a dog running behind him.  I was pretty sure it was the guy's dog, but he never looked back to make sure it was following him.  I said good morning and he said good morning back.  Then I said, "Your dog?"  He didn't answer.  I saw another couple on the other side of the canal and they said good morning to me.  I've been using Strava a lot more lately since I'm not as embarrassed for people to see my pace.  Strava has a cool little feature called "Flybys" which allows you to see other Strava users' workouts if they come within close proximity to yours during your workout.  It turns out that the gentleman was using Strava.  When I turned around at McDowell I saw them coming back and said, "Great job guys."  I thought they were running faster than me, but I looked at their pace on Strava and I was running faster.  They also had a dog, so maybe that slowed them down.  Then I saw the other guy with his dog.  They had moved to the other side of the canal.  He was definetly running faster than I was, but he wasn't using Strava.  Anyway, the run felt pretty good up until the last mile when I could tell the blister that had formed on the bottom of my left foot a few weeks ago was starting to get aggravated.  I'll have to try and doctor it up tonight.

I wanted to run 3 loops today, but I never doctored my blister yesterday and it started to bug me.  Also, I took my dog for a walk last night and it's been so humid that my areolae (is that the plural for nipples?) have been getting irritated.  Despite putting on Body Glide this morning, they were not happy.  So I just did two.
 

I got up nice and early.  Yesterday was a nice day, but I didn't run.  Today was a bit warmer.  I wanted to get a long run in so I decided to do the same route as Monday.  I was a bit slower today.  28 seconds per mile slower.  I failed to put on Body Glide this morning and I paid the ultimate price.  So I got home and my shirt is soaked with sweat.  My wife has hung a couple of hooks up at the end of the shower.  I'm sure they were supposed to be for her spongy thingies.  But I use them to allow my sweaty clothes to dry out.  So I took off my shirt and hung it up, then proceeded to go out back and feed the pig.  By the time I got back in the bathroom to take a shower, I noticed a streak of red running down the bath tub.  MY SWEATY SHIRT WAS DRIPPING SWEAT AND BLOOD DOWN THE SIDE OF THE SHOWER ALL AWAY ACROSS THE BATHTUB AND INTO THE DRAIN!!!!

Alarm went off at 3:30am.  Hit snooze once.  Got up.  Sat on the toilet for quite a while due to Mexican food yesterday.  Got a text from Mike at 3:50am that he was here.  Told him I'd be out shortly.  Got on the road at 4:00am and started running at 4:26am.  I noticed a large amount of moths flying around and getting plastered against Mike's windshield.  I wondered if they'd be attracted to our headlamps.  They weren't a problem.  This was my fastest run on this route this year.  First time being under 11 min. pace.   Mike got to the top of Usery about 0.4 miles before me.  As I approached the top I could see another headlamp.  I thought it was a cyclist, but it kept going out, then it would come back on.  I realized it was a guy getting ready to run.  There's a place where you can park on the side of the road about a tenth of a mile from the top.  He took off before I got to the top and turned around.  How do I know?  Strava.  I never caught him.  But I did get caught by three other runners on the downhill.  Only one of them was a Strava user, but I wondered if they were all in the same group because they all started from the top and ran down.  The first guy was huge.  Like very muscular.  Looked like a defensive end.  The next guy was also huge, but not as muscly.  He looked more like a lineman.  They caught me within the first half mile of the downhill.  Mike said they almost caught him, but he sped up so they wouldn't.  The last one was a girl.  I kept hearing footsteps behind me and would turn around to look but couldn't see anyone.  Finally I saw her.  She was wearing all black with very little reflective gear.  She had headphones in, but she said hi.  She passed me with just over 2 miles to go and I kept her in my sights the whole time.  With about 1.2 miles to go a runner was coming uphill.  He said good morning to me.  Turns out, thank you Strava, it was the husband of one of my former Ragnar teammates. 

I felt real good this morning except for wanting to drink some water and thinking I needed to go potty again during the last half mile.  It was nice to finish before sunrise today.