Achey Breakey...

Oh man.
On Saturday morning, I set out to follow this route. With some minor variations of course, as I live further south. And by "minor variations" I mean "tag on the extra distance without measuring it to see how far it actually is." Right. Essentially I ran 13.75 miles and walked another 2.25, for a grand total of about 16 miles on foot.

It was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny with blue skies. The roads quickly turn into country. Joy Road was actually a dirt road. With crickets. And a tiny little garter snake.

There were cyclists out in droves. I think that I amused them, shuffling along.

So all in all, it should have been a fantastic run. But as it turns out, although I carry fluids, I apparently don't carry enough for a 14-mile run in the summer heat. I'm used to refilling and supplementing them, but there are no water fountains on dirt roads in Michigan. I was also already a bit dehydrated going into this. And I sweat like nobody's business.

Also I'm just not in as good shape as I'd like to be. Consistency has been tough. And now, a couple of days later, everything still hurts. At least I can start using the gym now, so I can give my joints a break. And a friend who is also training for SF just told me about good shoe inserts for arch and joint problems, so I'll have to get on that.

Great news of the week though: "Actually, word on the street is, if you can handle Central Park's Harlem Hill, San Fran will be no sweat! For serious." That's from our team coordinator. Harlem Hill, while a pain in the ass, is a manageable pain in the ass that can be trained for. It is much better than, say, some of the hills I've been running on here, which are just torturous to the joints. I think a good plan would be for me to spend one day a week doing circuits on the hill in the Arb, one day a week on a good long run, and two days on the elliptical, plus two days of cross-training.