Flying

Tuesday is usually a rest day from running. We usually mow, but after keeping Lainey most of the day, Sherri wanted to put mowing off. I decided I should better run, because I won't run tomorrow if we mow. Plus, I don't remember if I've mentioned it or not, but we are mowing our neighbor's yard until his house sells - that may take another whole evening.

It was 90 degrees (same as yesterday) when I headed out. However, even with the sun beaming down on me, it didn't seem as hot as yesterday. Thankfully, I got some cloud-cover just over halfway through this 5 mile run. There was also a nice breeze blowing for the second half.

I believed I started off slower than yesterday's pace, but when I looked at my watch at Mile 1, it said 8:59. I thought to myself, "Man, under 9:00." I continued on, feeling my pace declining. Then I hit Mile 2 and my pace hadn't declined - 8:45. "8:45? What's going on?" The first 2 miles both under 9:00, but I knew I couldn't keep that pace. It was true; Mile 3 was at 9:17, which happened to be my fastest time yesterday at both Mile 1 and Mile 5. I must have gotten my second wind for mile 4 as I ran it in 8:48. Then the race was on! I wanted to finish with a pace better than 9:00. I didn't do any calculating on what pace Mile 5 needed to be. I just ran. I ran hard. Well, as hard as I could with what I had left. Mile 5 came in at 9:03. I wish I could have cut 4 seconds off of that, but I was happy I was able to just keep my feet. My total time was 44:52 - a pace of 8:58!

Okay, so I wasn't really flying. Cutting 30 seconds off my pace from yesterday sure made it seem like it, though. Except for the pain afterwards - a crash landing I guess you could say. My average heart rate was 172, max 193, resting 60. Recovery was from 189 to 133. I was trying to finish Mile 5 as fast as I could (max heart rate), but I was already slowing down.

CAUTION: I knew there would be blood in my urine the first time I peed after this run. While I was running, I could taste blood in the back of my throat. I guess that's what it was. The stream wasn't as constant red as I expected, but portions were quite thicker than they have been. It was like 3 ingredients that didn't mix. The first was the water of my urine that blended with the water in the commode. The second was the thick, dark yellow that was very slowly easing its way to the bottom. The third was the thick blood that made a mad dash to the bottom.