But barely!
It's been a rough few weeks since I last posted. The sweltering humidity and heat or is it the sweltering heat and humidity has been the cause of much consternation.
I don't do heat and humidity well. Just thinking about the combination seems to cause my pores to open and gallons of sweat to exude from my body at an unbelievable rate. Imagine if you can what running 5 or 6 miles in weather with a 115 degree heat index can do. I know I wrote about this before but I can't emphasize enought that it was ugly, people, just ugly. Carl looked at me when I came in and wondered if I'd run through the neighborhood water sprinkers. (I had but only to cool my legs and our Maddie dog off.) I couldn't have been wetter standing in the shower. The best part of it is that this run was a 5 mile run on a Sunday morning that started at 6:00 a.m. 6:00 A.M.!!
Am I the only one who thinks that is insane??
Oh - wait, you probably think I was insane for even attempting to run 5 miles in that kind of weather.
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results* - then you'd right because I not only did that run, but I did another 5 mile run under the same conditions two days later, another after that again and a six mile run after that!
I am a sweat bucket. I can easily lose 3-4 pounds after a run in these conditions. Not really the way I want to be losing weight. I end up feeling weak and tired - generally, just miserable all over. Being a woman of a certain age, I think my personal summers contribute something to my ability to sweat. The only time I don't really feel them is when I'm running. Hey! I just found a real positive to running!!
I went back to the fitness center in our neighborhood and used the DT (dreaded treadmill) and found that even being in an air conditioned room doesn't do a thing to inhibit the sweat glands in their performance. It does, as I've mentioned before, inhibit my spitting, but only so far as I spit into a rag rather than on the floor. I only did 2.5 miles before calling it quits there due to time constraints not physical conditions.
With the 6 mile run, I was running with my tunes and my fuel belt with a mixture of Gatorade's new G2 series Perform and water. I was hoping this watered down drink wouldn't have the same effect on my stomach as GU, but hope wasn't enough. I think my neighbors are really impressed by my sprinting home. If only they knew. Not so impressive. Sharts... definitely not a girl's best friend.
This morning, Running Buddy and I hit it again. She's back from vacation and the weather was a gift from God! 64 degrees, 59 degree dew point. Yes, yes, yes! And a nice breeze. Even more Yes! Yes! Yes! It was wonderful for our 4.5 mile run.
Thanks to all my fabulous donors: Kate, Erin, Cha, Helga, Sue, Arlene & Larry. Kate actually pushed me to run 10 miles! Yay!
Today was the Light the Night Ice Cream Social sponsored by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to provide information and recruit walkers for the Walk, September 25. I'm very excited to say that we were able to get 24 people signed up to be part of the Thomson Reuters team.
One of our new team members is a father who just lost his daughter in February to leukemia. Those are the hard moments. I watched as he strongly put his name down on the sign up sheet and admired him as he encouraged his friends to do the same. I wondered if I would have the ability to be so controlled were it my daughter. Teammate Cindy is the stepmother of Jenna, the author behind The Redhead Report, who is currently fighting the good fight. Another team member lost his mother two years ago this month and yet another is a survivor. These people have a personal interest. They know the "story of leukemia" even better than I do.
It's humbling.
And so I run.
Runs since last blog post:
07/23 - 5.07 miles 12:27 min/mile
7/24 - 2.61 miles 11:05 min/mile (run with my Carolina boy Tim)
07/29 - 6.02 miles 11:17 min/mile - followed by a 4.5 mile bike ride.
08/01 - 2.65 miles 12:04 min/mile (Dreaded Treadmill)
08/03 - 4.59 miles 11:51 min/mile (Running Buddy)
*attributed to Albert Einstein
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