Running the Inferno

Hey everyone! I hope you're all having a great weekend so far and had great training runs and races yesterday.

Friday night was a night of complete indecision. I've decided I'd like to trade my massive Expedition in for something smaller. I'm tired of 12 MPG and having to shimmy out of my car in all these tiny parking spots. Forget trying to maneuver around in it downtown, either. Problem is I LOVE it. It's so comfy and it has all the bells and whistles. So, we've started the process of shopping for a new car, which I HATE. I just want to know the price and to be given a fair value for my trade-in. I do realize that is a completely unrealistic goal. On our way to trying to figure out what we wanted to eat we stopped at the Chrysler-VW-Jeep-Hyundai dealer in Murfreesboro. We went to look at the Pacifica, but when I realized leather wasn't even an option (?????) that car was ruled out. I've already ruled out the TrailBlazer,Envoy, & Equinox because they don't have enough cupholders. We ended up test-driving the Cherokee, but I wasn't crazy about the feel of it. The front window was a little small and I felt a bit claustrophobic. All the options are really nice though. After that we went to dinner at Don Pablos and had a good meal.

My plan was to wake up early for a 6-8 mile run. I really hate getting up early!! I got up around 8, and by the time I had a bowl of cereal and whole wheat toast with peanut butter and changed around some of the songs on my mp3 player it was close to 9! When I first got up it was cloudy and not terribly hot, but of course as soon as I took off the sun was out and had burnt ALL the clouds off. It was unbelievably hot but my mind was strong and I wanted a long run. The new music on my mp3 player really helped keep my mind on track and off the heat . I saw a lot of the usuals out on the street, and I even saw bandana girl. I used to see her every Sunday afternoon when I was training for the CMMarathon. She would fly through the track at the hospital, and she was flying up the sidewalk yesterday morning, too. I ran past the park and through a subdivision, running through every sprinkler going and then sometimes I'd turn around and go back through them again. I am not too proud!! Most of my path is not very shaded, so any portions that were I'd turn around and repeat for any sort of relief from the sun. By mile 2 both of my frozen FuelBelt water bottles were completely melted, on an evening run that normally takes about 4-5 miles! I was really careful not too push myself too much and to stay fully hydrated. I ended up going somewhere around 7.5-7.75, not bad for a unbelievably hot morning run. I checked the felt like temps from my run time when I got home and it was 95-97 degrees. Jeesh. Yesterday's actual high was 97, down from the 102 and 100 we had earlier in the week.

Once I got back we showered and picked up some subs and headed over to Cheekwood. Brent bought a Canon 20D digital camera back around Christmas, so we enjoy going out and taking some photographs. We had a nice picnic lunch and then started walking around the grounds. Wouldn't you know it would start thundering as soon as we started exploring?? It hasn't rained here in over 2 1/2 weeks!! So we ran for shelter to their Art Museum and walked around looking at painting of dead, rich Nashvillians. We got sick of that and the rain was down to a sprinkle so we headed back outside. It sucked that the sun never came back out, but we still had a lot of fun. They've got some beautiful gardens. I would love to have a yard with a beautiful Japanese style garden. A few years ago while on vacation we visited the Japanese gardens in Portland, Oregon and they were unreal.

Well, that's enough blogging for me this morning. I'll finish the rest of our Saturday later!

Rae

Exercise:
Friday - 1 mile am walk with Pippin
Sat - 7.5-7.75 mile run, a lot of walking (3 hours) at Cheekwood