Turn your rut into a groove.

pm--5.5 A long day after a longer day. I was ~15 "en route" from home to Madison, WI. First flight was canceled, so I connected to Detroit. Silver lining--I got to watch Fabregas pass Iniesta into the World Cup winner. He should've played more. He made Spain dangerous. Anyway, back to Madison. Today was the first full day of my summer residency. I got to the dorms around 5:30 and decided to hit my old faithful. 

I can honestly say that I would fly to Madison just to run this loop for a week. From the dorms, I followed the shoreline of Lake Mendota to Picnic Point, extended it to Raymer's Cove, then follwed Lake Mendota Drive back to the Lake Shore Path. I triple love this run. All but about 1/2 mile of it is runnable on dirt. The Lake Shore path and much of the road around Madison has a worn dirt shoulder, perfect for running. Utah take note. The rest of the trail through the trees seems to be covered in a light mulch made of soil and wood chips. It's golden. I'm going to try and hit this run every day I'm out here.

pm--6.75 WiSCONsin is hot. (The emphasis is for other phonetically slow folks like myself). When the sun is out and the humidity is above 50%, it gets toasty. Not like 105 in the desert but toasty. The humidity, however, is a new variable for me. I would take it over the high desert heat any day.

Yesterday I didn't get out. Sleep caught up w/ me. But today, walking home w/ a headache, I saw UW's nationally ranked crew rowing on Mendota and just had to get out. So i medicated and took off. 

The route was from the western barricade at the boathouse to Raymer's Cove, via Picnic point. Mostly beautiful single track. Pure heaven. The only down side was the amount of perspiration that I built up on the run. My clothes must've weighed 5-6 pounds. Good run. This should be the 1 I hit at least once a day while I'm out here.

am--13.5 Went w/ a classmate who is training for a half marathon. We went down through the UW Arboretum and looped around to Lake Monona, up to the terrace, which I've heard was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, down State and back home. The pace was easy, and the run felt good. This week has been weird. I've had a hard time adjusting my sleep patterns and also difficulty juggling school, school work, socializing, and running. I might get out to the heavenly single track this evening. We'll see. 

It's my daughters birthday today, and I'm missing her.