Ramping up the long runs

Today was one of those tiresome scheduled solo long run days on a HOT HOT day (official heat advisories in effect until 8PM).

So I dragged my carcass out of bed at 5AM, filled it with coffee, and headed out for my planned 14 miles on the road. On foot. At 6AM, before sunup, it was already 84 degrees and impossibly high humidity.

But whenever I get out there and do the job I'm always rewarded with interesting sights that I would otherwise never notice. Today it was several "fairy rings" of huge mushrooms that had sprouted up in big circles, as pictured.

I was meticulous with my water and sodium, because today I really needed both. My course has several loops, all about 2.4 miles in length, so I would stop (stealing icewater that is set out for the golfers every morning) and refill my 20 ounce water bottle and take one Succeed cap (344 mg sodium, 21 mg potassium) on each loop, roughly every half hour. That worked out quite well, and I only had to kick in one more capsule when I started getting a teensy bit of hand swelling, as monitored by the "tight wedding ring" test.

Glad that's done for the week! My ankles are a little tired, as expected, but otherwise I'm feeling pretty fine! Total distance (via Gmaps pedometer) was 14.7 miles. Even though it was getting brutally hot by the time I finished, I felt like I could have continued for another 11.5 miles to the marathon finish line, if I HAD to, which is exactly how I want to finish these runs feeling!