No wonder I feel like _____

I finished my run before noon, and it was 30 C already.  Good thing the dog decided to sleep in, although I would've cut the run short if he'd been with me, which would have made me feel better.  I did three loops, total 2:50 with the run over there: 52 minutes, 48 minutes, and 55 minutes.  The second one was faster because I accepted that my breathing wasn't ever going to drop back down--I can't keep a truly easy effort when it's warm out.  The last loop was brutal.  There was a dark moment of increasing effort and despair, and I was working myself into a rather negative zone and failing to ditch abdominal cramps to boot...and then I decided to relax, to forget about pace, to forget about my expectations, to forget about feeling that I had to get anywhere at any time, and to see just how much time I would gain by walking uphills now and then.  Answer: not very much.

Positives:  I'm getting better at not tripping--first stumble wasn't until 2:16!--and also at remembering to lift my head/gaze whenever possible, because after a while I get sore from always looking down.  Unfortunately, the two advances were linked in this case, but it was one of those sneaky barely visible roots.  And I learned that when I get to that [verb] this [noun] point, when I'm sliding on sand and pine needles and/or tripping over junk and sometimes kicking it up against myself (fave move: hooking a branch on my heel and hitting myself in the back of the leg with it), I can stop to walk.  And, no matter how hot and miserable things get, they could be worse (volcanoes, Death Valley, etc).


And without the Sun, there would be no Life.

Anyway, I'm banking on Tropical Depression Karen to blast this unreasonable weather to smithereens soon.  You go, gurl!!!!!!