I'll never be a biker!

Today I went to spinning class at our YMCA. Sounded like fun and a great workout! Angela Barnhill, the teacher, is well known when it comes to making her class a physical challenge for everyone! Sounded good to me, given I can't run for a few days. Since I run marathons and ultras, i thought this would be easy! Wrong! Luckily my boney butt gave out well before my cardio but I don't think I could have "hung" for the full class!

My butt still hurts! How can you sit on those narrow, hard seats???? No way for me! Biker must be tough as nails! Not like this wimpy runner!

And this was all inside . . . in air conditioning! Add heat, humidity and CARS. No way.

Not running is hard!

Without a doubt, not running is hard! Since mid last week, I've had to put my running on hold. Believe me, this definitely was not in my plans! A friend, Doug Slater, is up here at Lake Gaston this week and he and I were going to do a run this morning. And next weekend Cam Kelly and I were going to do a 50k so we could "officiate" our Medoc Mountain Meltdown 50k on August 23 (http://runmedoc.blogspot.com/).

While blood in your urine is not uncommon for runners, it hadn't happened to me in about 35 years of running. And it didn't even start on a long run! About three weeks ago I "ran" the Sweaty Butt 50k at Umstead Park in Raleigh and did fine . . . no blood at all. But the next Saturday I ran a fairly moderate 6-7 miler and was freaked out to see blood when I took a pee. (Before this I had often wondered if I would ever really know if I had bloody urine. Believe me . . . you'll know!!!). A doctor I was with told me to force fluids and that worked! But the blood has come back twice since . . . and the last time was way worse and it didn't go away for about 18 hours! REALLY freeks me out! I may try another run late this week and see how it goes.

I have some tests in early August to rule out some very unlikely bad stuff, so hopefully this time off will help me. I probably need a little time off.

Heat Sucks!

The title says it all! I hate running in really hot weather almost more than not running at all.

Today, the temperatures at noon (when I run every weekday) were close to 100 and who knows about the humidity!

Oh . . . high humidity sucks as much as hot temperatures!

I really struggled to run 4 miles . . . probably walked at least a minute total. Come on . . . only 3-4 miles! I took a Gatorade with me and almost finished it. Okay . . . I know gatorade for this short of a run (even in heat and humidity) is overkill! But it tasted good!

Three weeks ago I struggled through a 50k in Umstead Park in Raleigh, NC (Sweaty Butt 50k http://www.ncultra.org/article.php?story=20080714163200518) where the humidity was reallllllly high . . . and temps were up there too. This is really crazy . . . we shouldn't be running long distances in weather like this! So why do we? I honestly can't explain it.

Hot / humid weather should mean treadmill or elipse machines. I'll try.

Okay . . . let's start! Slowly!

I'm a runner. Most of my friends would agree . . . if the term "runner" is used loosely. I'm definitely not a fast runner. My recent marathon times center around 5 hours 15 minutes or so . . . slower if its either hilly or hot . . . a little faster if its cool and flat. Hence, my blog name.

In my past, I used to run faster. Not fast, but at least faster. (PRs: 20 minute 5k; 4 hour marathon). But about three years ago I discovered if I slowed down, carried a camera, stop and take pictures, walk when I want . . . well I had more fun and I was fine to run the next day . . . almost no soreness. So, that's what I started doing!

My goal this year is to run a marathon or more every month. So far so good. But today I was reading a blog a guy I know (Doug "Boogieman" Dawkins) has started, to chronicle his cross-USA run. That's right, cross-USA! (http://dougsrun.wordpress.com/) Guess I need to work on my goals!

If by chance, anyone happens to find this blog of mine, check out Doug's blog . . . and if you happen to live near his route, why don't you offer to help him in his adventure!