Saturday running log

I ran again on Saturday, because we are scheduled to get weather for Sunday. Today it appeared to be nice out since it was sunny, but it was still chilly--right at 30F by our thermometer.

I wore just a thin polyester set of running tights and a thick cotton long-sleeved t-shirt, a cotton bandanna and some medium-weight gloves. I wore heavier gloves than normal because last week my hands lost circulation, which wasn't painful but a little disconcerting.

As I left I felt a little cold, but this is good: If you feel fine when you start, you will be too hot once you warm-up. Also, I brought my iPod shuffle. I don't normally want it on runs this long because the ear-buds become irritating after more than two hours. They didn't bother me today though and I really liked the random mix of classical (Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Mozart, Orff, Handel)and rock (too many to mention).

Things I noticed on the way:

A certain proportion of cars will not move one iota from their path, no matter if there is a pedestrian on the side of the road. It doesn't seem to matter much if there is on-coming traffic either: The edge huggers (as I call them) give me less room when there is no traffic, than normal drivers do even when there are cars coming from the opposite direction. What was really odd was one bicyclist today: He practically ran over me and there was no traffic around. With cars I can understand how they don't care if they scare a runner--they are not in any danger. But the cyclist would have been hurt just a badly as me. I am kind of amazed by the cavalier driving I see. Drivers don't put themselves in any physical danger when they come close to hitting me, but they could seriously mess-up their lives. If you go to prison for even a short time, you would probably loose your job, possibly your home, marriage and custody of your children.

Other things I noticed: What looked like an unopened can of Miller beer. Too bad it was so early in the run (about 3 miles in) I would seriously have stopped and drank it had it been at mile 10 or later. At about mile 12 I saw an empty bottle of Grolsh beer. It was one of the fancy green ones with the mechanical closure. If I had been closer to home I would have saved it, but I didn't want to carry the thing for the next 7 miles.

Time wise this was a big improvement over last week, I shaved 8 minutes off that time for 2 hours 37 minutes on the 19 miles. I need to improve further, but am happy with the direction things are going.

I may have noted in an earlier post about how, even hours after a long run, blood pressure can be low. Mine was 113/61 about 90 minutes after getting home. This would scare me, except that it is apparently normal when doing endurance work-outs.