Two good runs in a row.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

It should have been a ride day, but like so many Saturday’s, if I don’t have a ride scheduled with John, I manage to fritter time away doing this and that knowing that I only need a little over an hour to get in a good run. With riding, I feel like I need at least two hours. Well…I had a picnic to attend at 6 p.m., one where I knew I’d eat all kinds of terribly fatty things…and I had a little over an hour to work out to pre-burn the calories.

Though the temperature was on the rise again, the humidity was lower and it actually felt pretty comfortable at the beginning of the run. I decided to see if I could even out the pace and if that would have any impact on my overall time. I’ve been going out harder on days that I want to challenge my course record, but yesterday that had led to a crawl over the final couple of miles.

I didn’t even check my splits knowing that would only make me shift my pace. I decided I’d just try to stay consistent throughout the run. It seemed to work well and I came into the final 20 minutes of the run feeling like I was actually still running. I reached Clear Creek in 56:06, which was 16 seconds slower than yesterday and 30 seconds off my best, but I felt good about having run respectable times back-to-back.

Although I wasn’t as drenched in sweat as I had been the day before, I still wanted to cool off in Clear Creek. I wanted to do it without getting my shoes wet, but I didn’t want to take them off, either. I managed to keep my feet on the stones crossing the creek while dropping my butt…closely followed by the rest of my body…into the water. It looked dumb as hell, but I managed it. When I pulled myself back up on the stones, all the water in my shorts and shirt ran down my legs and saturated my shoes. Duh.

Oh…and the word was out in the deerfly world. I had one come in for a taste early on…smashed him good…and only one more during the entire run, which I dispensed with equal efficiency. Let’s hope they’re learning.

Run duration: 56 minutes.

Training Heart Rate: 140.

Calories burned during workout: 975.