Feels great to be done early...

I knew today was going to be hot and I was hoping I'd wake up early and do my long run. I didn't set my alarm clock because I wanted to give my body time to rest as per its internal clock. Low and behold I was up a 7 am and after breakfast, coffee, web surfing and downloading Reid's picture with Mick Foley from my inbox, I was on the road by 8 am. It was already hot. It was 33 C and virtually no wind. Within the first half mile of my run I came up behind a women running and then she stopped. As I passed her she looked exasperated and said "it's to hot to run". I laughed and said "I'm just starting a 2 hour run". I think she thought I was crazy.

It was a beautiful morning run. I didn't see many runners, but I did see a lot of cyclists. The route I take is fairly challenging, lots of hills, although it's well treed which gave me lots of shade. I rarely do my long runs with a water belt, but this morning I'm glad I did. I needed that water and Gatorade. About half way through the run my feet and shoes were soaked from sweat. You don't think about getting wet feet when it's not raining. Next time I hope I remember to bring a change of socks. Wet feet are notorious for causing blisters. I weighed myself when I got home and lost 5 lbs of water on the run.

There was a funny moment when a couple of women went by me on their bikes and we exchanged pleasantries, then about a mile up the road I caught up to them as they were taking a water break in the shade. As I ran by, one of them told me to stop shaming them by catching up to them.

I couldn't believe the amount of women out on their bikes today. I bet you half the cyclists I saw were women. I've noticed that in running races the field is now about half women, whereas years ago there was very few women. Now I'm seeing that women are starting to get more involved in cycling and triathlons. I now know why I see so many women's clothes at the triathlon and running expos.

It sure feels great to be done by 10 am. I've now got the whole day in front of me and I won't have to think about when I should get out the door to do my long run. I also wanted to get the run done early because last week I waited until the evening and had to cut it short due to a huge storm. Had I done it earlier last week I wouldn't have had to cut it short. I guess I'll relax all day and watch Tiger hopefully win his next major.

I've attached a video of Bill Bradley. This guys is an ultra endurance athlete that had a personal crisis in 2006 and got into endurance racing. He's very like able and I follow him on twitter. Enjoy.

Long Run - 1:59:50 / 14.61 miles / 8:12 pace / avg hr 139