!

Wow! The weather was civil this morning!  Only 17 C!  And not terribly humid either. 

So we jogged around until it was about 24 C or so, about 2 hours and forty-five minutes.   I felt off when we started (guts are still healing) but halfway up the first hill I told myself, wait, what's the rush?  Don't have to feel like a sick skanky-ass POS because it's only 17C and not humid!  Enjoy the cruise!

And, YEAH, there was a lower gear!

It's been a while since I've done a long trail run, though, and I bailed completely almost two hours into it.  There's a ton of roots and my eyesight isn't the best when it comes to judging distances.  I have the occasional stumble but this was the first time I've fallen here.  But it was uphill on sand and roots, no harm done except to my pride, which had caused the wreck in the first place:

During my first pass through that section, I met a guy running in the opposite direction.  He looked terribly serious, and I probably did too even though I tried to smile, but there are just so many roots.  He was going downhill so he had the worst of them.  Still, it's nice to see another runner in there; I usually see just a few per month.  Anyway, we jogged some more and then, about 20-30 minutes later, we met him again on the opposite smile of the forest.  Smiles were broadened by the additional trail cred.  Even the dog was smiling.  Ok, buddy, it's on.

I get sucked into claiming the loop each and every time.  I can't help it.  When I'm on a loop, and someone else is running it in the opposite direction, I try to gain a little more ground on them each time I pass them.  I don't beat myself up, but I try to keep it tight.  But this game isn't standardized here because there isn't one big loop but a bunch of smaller ones, and different combinations thereof--for all I knew, he was sticking to the hiking trails and not the bridle paths, and maybe that was his last or only loop.  And of course he didn't know it was on.  He was just some random guy enjoying his morning jog.  Whatever.  The shame of losing ground spurred me on.

Into a root and thence into the sand.  But he wasn't around.  We didn't see him again.  We did another loop and went home.  I had a smoothie and then my husband expressed interest in a bike ride.

Ok, cool.  20 miles in under an hour and a half.  I don't know the exact time.  My husband smoked me.  I was tired and my bike is a commuter with disk brakes and a panier and so forth, and his is a road bike with shoe clips.  Plus I'm going to lose him on the downhills no matter what!  Usually I make up for it on the uphills, but not today.  By the time we stopped, it was 28 or 29 C, but not humid.  Makes all the difference.

I don't think I'm doing weights again this week, although I'll probably end up digging some more tonight once it cools off.  So, a wash for the muscles, but at least I did a decent long run during a somewhat dismal week.   It partially makes up for yesterday's big workout zero.