DAY 38: EXHAUSTED...

Greetings,


The title of this post is a double entendre. Keep reading to find out why.

I was excited about today's run because my Garmin Forerunner 305 arrived yesterday and I wanted to take it for a test drive. But I ended up having to wait until the afternoon after work because my co-workers wanted to meet early for breakfast this morning. So, as opposed to running at 5 AM, I ran at 5 PM. Which leads to the title of this post...

First off, running in the heat after working all day is EXHAUSTING! Even though the humidity was low, it was still hot. And just being at work is draining even when I'm not doing much work, but I was actually busy today. So, my legs felt like lead, and I was pretty tired 5 minutes into the run. As you can imagine, the following 25 minutes were a struggle, but I pushed through the whole 30 minutes. The first half my run was pretty much all downhill, which meant that the run back was all uphill, since I ran a simple out-and back route. BRUTAL!!!

Second, Kelly Drive, the trail where I normally do my weekday morning runs, is about an 8.5-mile loop that runs along the Schuylkill River. Less than a few feet away from the trail is a 4-lane major artery that runs parallel to the trail, leading to and from the downtown Philadelphia area. At 5 AM, there are barely any cars on the road: it's cool, quiet and peaceful at that hour. On the contrary, at 5 PM the road is filled with rush-hour traffic in both directions: it's loud, distracting, and smelly from EXHAUST FUMES! Even though I was outdoors with seemingly an endless supply of fresh air, the concentration of cars on the road made for less-than-optimal breathing conditions for a winded, novice wanna-be runner. With every labored breath, I felt like I was sucking in muffler contents. I may as well had wrapped my lips around the tail pipe of one of those vehicles because that's what it felt like anyway.

So, I was exhausted AND sucking in exhaust fumes while running today. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel...

My new toy is freaking awesome!!! I'm not going to list all it's cool features and functions, but here is a summary of my run today, courtesy of my Garmin Forerunner 305 and MotionBased software, which features Google Maps.





Hotness. Need I say more.

Excited owner of a new high-tech gadget,

Almost Thirty