Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Long run Monday


Due to an over-extended weekend schedule of work + play, I didn’t get around to starting my long run until 6:30 pm last night. Our days are nice and long right now (but steadily decreasing! oh snap!) which meant there was sunshine to soak up well after I left work at 5:00 pm, and still more at 6:30.

Long runs in the summer are all about starting early to stay ahead of the curve of intensifying heat. Some runners I know start their long runs on a weekend morning at 7:00 am or even earlier, in order to reduce time in the sunshine. The heat saps your strength, encourages thirst, makes you want to pop into a shop with blasting A/C and hang out forevermore. Evening runs have the opposite vibe. The heat is already in force so you end up drinking a lot of water at first. Case in point: I refilled my water bottle twice during the first half but thereafter it became an empty vessel for my hands to hold. (And fumble.)

I like to do all my intense sweating in the beginning of the evening so that I can encase myself in a layer of salt fine as icing sugar, and which I sometimes have the great pleasure of tasting as I swipe sweat out of my eyes and accidently touch my mouth. Is there anything grosser than tasting the salt produced by your own body. As the evening cools and I am left running amidst pairs of lovers strolling at dusk, I continue to appear red-faced and flaked with salt. And that is why sunglasses are the best invention ever. Remind me to take along a fake moustache next time.

Another disgusting moment in gel tasting history: Salted Watermelon. Stay away!  

Long run: 25k
Weekly total: 41k


 

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