Hot, hot hot

Mutai running Berlin, steeplechase, interesting article about how to get a sub 2 hour marathon, Olympic champion Michael Johnson, Rupp's 5K chances in London, Ethiopian Olympians, Geena Gall, 6 guys under 12:50 in Paris, Paris recap, and a great article about sex in the Olympics.

Wednesday, July 4th - 6 miles.  Ran the Freedom 4 Mile race downtown because my wonderful employer hooked up some comped entries.  Got Pat, Crystal, and Megan in, and we met downtown bright and early.  Was 85 degrees at race time (7 a.m.) and sunny and humid - not exactly ideal racing conditions.  Plan was to run the first mile relatively hard, then figure it out from there.  Went through the first mile in 6:15 and was about half a mile into the 2nd mile when my body literally started to shut down.  It was brutal.  Opted to just jog it in from there as killing myself to run 26 minutes wasn't my cup of tea, especially on a hot morning.  Ran back to catch Megan, and ran her in.  Even 9 minute pace was rough.  Cooled down with Crystal afterwards (women's winner!), then Local Harvest for brunch!

Thursday, July 5th - 4 miles.  Ran with Mike at night.  95 degrees at 8:30 - ugh.  Another just god awful humid night.  Could barely keep a decent pace.  Out and back towards Troy.  34:16 total (16:43 last 2 miles) - felt like I was running 6:30's out there, but in reality 8:40's.

Friday, July 6th - 5 miles.  Treadmill at lunch.  Legs felt like poop.  Ran for 43:17, I believe.  Travelled to Chi at night after work.  Because of track construction, I had to take the bus up there which was a nice 7 hours in a tiny seat.  Not to mention, in the Carlinville stop, we picked up 5 guys who had literally just gotten out of jail and were headed to Chicago as well.  You can't make this stuff up.  I learned some interesting things on that busride...

Saturday, July 7th - 0!  Crapped out - slept in and it was too late to get in a run with the 100+ temps.  Wedding all day in the subarbs, crashed out at night.

Sunday, July 8th - 14 miles (8 miles a.m., 6 miles p.m.).  Finally a nice day to run - just had amazing weather, and got out around 1 p.m. after the Wimbledon final (go Federer!).  80 degrees and sunny is usually a recipe for disaster, but the temps were almost 25 degrees cooler so it felt like a damn fall day outside.  Kept effort light, and cruised through the Lakeshore run headed north.  Sun was brutal, but it still felt better than the last couple weeks.  Negative split this portion, and felt pretty tired but good.  1:00:42, I believe (~7:36 average).  At night, got home late from the train/bus.  Weather was nice and cool, and finished out my long run with my 6 mile loop around town.  52 minutes and some change.  38 miles this week, 42 miles in July, 1034 miles for 2012.

Monday, July 9th - 6 miles.  Big River group run.  90's, sunny, and humid.  Legs felt like crap, and within a mile I knew this was going to be rough.  Ran with Pat, Craig, Joe, and Gibbs.  We ended up shortening the run because we were all just dead tired, and a couple bathroom breaks later we eventually finished.  Quite possibly the worst run of the year.  I had 53:16 on my watch, but this may not be accurate because I stopped/started and forgot to stop/start on a couple occasions.  Dinner at Three Monkeys afterwards with the group - amazing pizza!

Tuesday, July 10th - 4 miles a.m.  Crystal and I ran this morning, and it was a lot nicer weather than the night before.  5:30 a.m. start, and it went by ok.  Stomach was a mess, and it was a bit uncomfortable.  Have full intentions of getting in some strides and a few more miles at night.