81 degrees

that's how warm it was at 5 a.m. this morning. not the kind of air you want as you start a 16 mile run. armed with gu's and chomps, we set out. after the first mile, we were on pace. as i told coach, that wasn't planned. i was going to ease into the pace. i have been letting the pace come to me on these longer runs and today, it appeared at mile 2.

we stopped for water and nutrition at jackson road, and terri had dropped some G2 at clyde so we had a little extra once we got there. we had decided to go out about a half mile past the turnaround so we could have some recovery time at the end of the run. so we hit clyde depot twice. we took our time at the water stops to make sure we had all the hydration and nutrition we needed since it was warm.

heading back from clyde on our way to jackson road, terri spotted a snake. i was oblivious. we waited for it to pass, while i snuck a closer look at it. to me, a snake is a snake. all are scary. my favorite part of the run was not the snake, but terri's high stepping moves once the snake passed. she was NOT going to be caught near the ground in case this snake had a friend behind him. i lost it laughing at her. if you aren't sure what a high step is, refer to the photo to the right.

once back at jackson road, because we went out a bit further, we had only 3 miles left. all we needed to do was stay on pace and finish it. the miles really clicked by quickly, and before we knew it, we were in our last mile. we were steady and strong. perhaps because we had planned a little treat at the end of our run, and we were running toward it. a big reason we decided to go out a bit further was to hit up the sonic on 4th street for a powerade slush. we have come to love these in the summers after long runs. it's a reward and an enjoyable way to replenish electrolytes. we eased up the hill to 4th, got our slush, and enjoyed a nice mile walk.

another successful week is wrapping up. i will wake up in the morning for a recovery run, unless my ankle that i rolled on thursday is feeling a bit sore and painful. it's healing, but after today's 16, i don't want to take any risks tomorrow. it's a faint shade of purple (i'm not a bruiser), but the swelling has gone down a good bit since yesterday. it is most painful in the high ankle area, and mostly when i rotate it. otherwise, it's ok and will be better quickly i believe. i'm clumsy i guess!

next week's schedule includes two works i'm growing to love - recovery week. me loving recovery week doesn't mean i don't love the hard training weeks. it just means i'm ready for a rest. training weeks are intense, challenging and exciting. recovery weeks are restful, easy and pleasant. both weeks have their place.

and by the way, i ate $24 worth of outback tonight. most of it was healthy. :)