Running Hot and Biking Cool

Today was an odd one.  I planned (not really or I wouldn't have been drinking Friday night) to run Saturday morning in a group run for 10 miles at 6am.  I slept right through that.  11:30am it is.  10 miles?  Maybe.

It was hot by 11:30am.  85 degrees and humid.  No cloud cover, so it was really fun running on the roads.  Sun from above and heat from the road.  I can't wait for summer!

I started with a 12 minute first mile as my warmup and I didn't intend to stretch.  Go right into it.  I was still stiff for my second mile and couldn't open up my stride yet, but I picked it up the pace regardless.  I stopped at the local Publix for a quick water break since they have a fountain inside.  The next two miles went by relatively easy, but the heat was definitely taking its toll on me.  I didn't feel like pushing the envelope, so I finished my run at 5 miles.  My time was 45:07, which is an average of 9:01 pace.

I want to know what my average pace is without including the first warmup mile.  45:07 minus the 12 minute warmup is 33:07.  That comes out to 8:16 per mile.  That would have been a good pace if I ran the whole 10 miles, but I might have been able to do that if weren't 85 degrees with the sun beating down on me.

I took some advice from danny and ran my head under water, but since I didn't have a barrel out in the middle of the road, I stopped running.  It was a necessary step in cooling down, though.

That was it for running.  I stayed the rest of the daylight hours inside.  I grilled out as the sun was going down and threw down 3 cheeseburgers with mushrooms and onions.  Awesome stuff.

As the night went on, I just felt uneasy.  I'm not sure if it was the Orlando Magic losing their first playoff game to the Atlanta Hawks or the 3 cheeseburgers sitting in my gullet.  Maybe both.  Around 11pm, something hit me and I just had to go ride my bike.

I know a point in the neighborhood that is 2 miles away and thought that may be a good ride for an out and back.  When I got there, I took notice that the main road at this point has a bike lane and there wasn't too much traffic out there.  I rode to the end of the bike lane at the next traffic light and that happened to be .7 miles.  I did up and backs 3 times, so that covered another 4.2 miles.  I just felt free out there, because it felt so cool compared to the daytime and riding a bike is so much easier than running.  I almost felt like I was flying.  I could have kept going for another hour with no problems, but I only wanted to break a sweat and burn off some energy (burgers).