A long slow jog, especially in the summer months, can result in significant water loss as well as energy depletion. I'm not much of a drinker of alcohol — I get dizzy after one beer — but I find that Negra Modelo serves well to rehydrate, especially when accompanied by a big bowl of newly-reconstituted instant mashed potatoes as part of Operation Refuel. Recent log entries:
Amherst Yassos
(3 July) - 6 miles, 64 minutes — late afternoon, last day in Amherst MA before the 500-mile drive home ... no baseball to watch [OfficialScorekeeper] so it's time to train ... I'm fantasizing about doing a 4-hour marathon some day, so at the local high school track (a nice one, fancy resilient brown surface) for what I laughingly term "speedwork" I do eight "Yasso 800's" (actually 880 yards, two laps, since I presume this isn't a metric loop) ... average of 3:56 each, walking a ~4-minute lap to recover between ... there's a brilliant sunset and high luministic clouds ...
Paint Fumes
(7 July) - 8 miles, 87 minutes — from Che^z to Bethesda and back via the Georgetown Branch on a warm early evening after a set of thunderstorms pass ... I stupidly sprint between batallions of cars to cross busy Connecticut Avenue during mile six (at 9:55, my fastest) and survive, but really shouldn't do that ever again ... for first and final miles the paint fumes are heavy behind the auto body shops near mile 0.5 of the GB — EPA measurement machinery is needed there, perhaps, to see if those solvents are legal to vent in such large quantities ...
Bethesda Loop
(10 July) - 11+ miles, 126 minutes — warm and humid (I know, it's summer, get used to it dude!) but generally pleasant ... I take the usual widdershins circuit (from home past the WRx mermaidelovely fountain to RCT, northwest to Cedar Lane, along which past Stone Ridge School and NIH to Old Georgetown Road, south to Bethesda and the GBT and thence home again) ... cobwebs veil the lights on the underside of the Beltway ca. mile 2.6 of the RCT ... dump liters of water over my head at every opportunity ... meet Wayne Phyillaier http://www.silverspringtrails.org for the first time in person at the Bethesda GBT fountain, and (after pouring more water over my head, so that I look like a drowned rat) chat with him and thank him for his fine efforts on behalf of the Coalition for the Capital Crescent Trail http://www.cctrail.org/, and in turn Wayne thanks me for my attempt at balanced coverage of some controversial trail issues in RailTrailPolitics (24 Oct 2003) ... Wayne is installing free bells on bicycles for all passers-by who will accept them ... slightly rested now, I achieve a marginally sub-10-minute pace for miles #8 and #9 on the homeward bound stretch ...
Sligo Creek + Northwest Branch Evening Loop
(14 July) - 11+ miles, 138 minutes — incredibly cute baby on her mother's lap, and half a block later incredibly cute bunny rabbit hopping across a suburban front lawn ... set out at 6:35pm, inspired by an email from fast young ultrarunner Morgan Windram (cf. MorganWindram100MilerReport) in which she suggests the possiblility of doing the Tussey Mountainback 50 miler http://www.tusseymountainback.com/ this fall ... air has been cleared and cooled somewhat by afternoon thunderstorms and the passage of a cold front ... from home I jog to Sligo Creek near the Beltway, head north a mile and refill the water bottle at the park fountain ... then east on Dennis & Lockridge to join the Northwest Branch Trail — a real trail, rugged and uncivilized, which scares me as I have to sit to avoid a tumble while clambering down boulders made slippery by earlier rains ... I twice nearly twist an ankle ... recognize the place where I fell into the stream back in May 2003 [ForestPrimevalPedestrian] ... visions intrude of breaking a leg and crawling out, a la the mountain-climbing book/movie TouchingTheVoid — nobody else is on the pathway this evening ... I proceed cautiously until a couple of miles downstream when I'm on the paved part of the NWB Trail ... and by then I'm clearly not going to make it home by sunset, but I estimate that I should still get back slightly before 9pm and total darkness, which turns out to be accurate ... return route is via Piney Branch, Sligo Creek Trail, Colesville Road & Dale Drive ... sightings include poison ivy vines, multiple black butterflies (swallowtails?), and fireflies seeking their mates at dusk ...
TopicRunning - TopicPersonalHistory - 2004-07-15
(correlates: GungHoPrinciples, BoysAndCookies, 2007-08-31 - Lap, Dog, ...)