Monday Monday

Rest day today. Too bad because it was 72, clear blue sky and no humidity. Awesome. Time to look back at last week and get a grip on this coming running week.

Last week I ran 30.85 miles. It was warm and muggy every night. Wednesday night at 8 p.m. the heat index was still well into the 90's so I ran inside at the Y. I know lots of us were fighting oppressive heat last week. I hope you get some relief this coming week.  The one thing I am happy with from this past week is the recovery from the medium and long runs seems to be shorter than it was a month ago.  I am reaping some fitness benefits.  Soon, it will be time for a mileage increase.  Maybe this week even.

I did my long run on Saturday evening instead of Saturday morning this past week. It felt lots better. I don't know, my body just prefers evening runs I guess. The one thing that was difficult was the deer flies. They were thick!  Those little boogers just love drilling me right in the back of the head.

Sunday we smoked a pork loin over apple wood.  My wife wrapped it in bacon first and injected some sort of beer sauce into it the night before.  It was awesome!  Then to make things even more awesome she made a homemade cherry pie from the cherries we picked last week.  Wow, much better than canned cherries.  It's all I can do to not just sit down and eat the whole pie.  I think I could live on cherry pie.

What's been awesome for you lately?

Hot Hot Hot

Because it's been a hot week for running for a lot of us. Embrace the heat but be careful out there. Hydrate and then hydrate some more.

Week in Review, 7/11-7/17

Sorry for being MIA.  Work was very busy last week and that took priority.

Here's the summary of how the week went:

Monday:  Travel day for work and rest day.
Tuesday:  Got out close to midnight for a run under the nearly full moon around the golf resort we were staying at (Boyne Highlands).  Had to dodge the sprinklers.  Got about 3.4 miles in.
Wednesday:  Got out again under the full moon around the resort.  The golf courses are strangely silent.  No crickets, no frogs, nothing.  No night sounds at all.  Just the sound of sprinklers.  Got about 5 miles in.
Thursday:  Rest day and traveled Thursday night.
Friday:  Got about 6.2 miles in back on my home route.  Felt good to be back.
Saturday:  Got up early to beat the heat.  Got 10 miles in.  Later, went and picked cherries with the family.  Cherries fresh from the tree taste nothing like what comes from the grocery store.
Sunday:  HOT!  I slept in.  Too hot to run until evening.  I waited until the sun went down and got 5 miles in.  It was still 81 degrees at 9:30 p.m. and very humid.

This week I am celebrating my one year runnerversiary.  Woot!  I am planning to celebrate by...running!  LOL.  I am starting to see a fitness improvement on my 10 mile runs, so I'm thinking one more week of the current mileage and then I will bump my long, slow distance run up to two hours and fifteen minutes for approximately 11.5 miles.

Weekly food notes:  This past week we had dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings a couple of times.  I discovered the mango lemonade.  Yum!  It rocks!  It pairs with the mild sauce just perfect.  Watching the MLB All Star game on a tv screen that was about 15 feet across was cool too.  Saturday we had dinner at Thatsa Pizza in Traverse City, MI after picking cherries.  I loved it.  The crust was light and the toppings were substantial.  Just the way I like it.  We'll be going back there again.

Cucumbers are coming on in our garden hot and heavy now.  Very tasty.  I'm been eating them as fast as I can, but they grow faster.  Our peas are almost done.  The kids ate most of them, but I did get a few.  Peas from the garden are a special summer treat.  Too bad it can't last all year.  The tomatoes should start soon.  Probably by the end of this week we'll be able to start picking tomatoes.

What's your favorite summer produce?  Mine has to be tomatoes.  Garden tomatoes are packed with flavor.