The weather made for another interesting day. It was pouring rain basically all day. I would've liked to have gone out during the day, but it felt chilly. I knew it was going to warm up in the evening, so I took a chance.
I got out the door and was surprised at how warm it was out. I had a long sleeve shirt under my shell. I didn't need that much. The shorts were good though. There was a bit of a breeze out.
I lucked out with the weather. I thought it would be raining when I started, but it wasn't. The plan was to stay close to home, since heavy rain and thunderstorms were coming at some point. I would've liked 10 miles, but I figured if I at least did 5, I'd be good.
I changed it up a bit. I ran in the neighborhood on the other side of the school first. I knew I could just about get 5 miles over there. The headlamp still wasn't charged, so I had to be careful. This started with some nice gradual uphill.
There are two dead end streets. I these are good for adding distance, especially with little traffic. I don't usually run them though, as they go downhill first and then back up. That can be frustrating. The legs struggled a bit with the uphills.
I didn't want to run through the industrial park. There are usually too many cars there and without the headlamp, it wasn't worth the risk. I did have bright clothes on though. I think most cars saw me, although some people drive crazy in the neighborhoods.
I decided to go around the little new neighborhood by the industrial park. On the way there, someone was standing on the road in the middle of nowhere. It was weird. I ran on the sidewalk where I could.
I figured that I was around mile 3 now. I normally run the first street here. However, they added another street and houses since I began running the area. I'd yet to actually go on it though. I ran there tonight. Some of the houses were moved in, some were being built and some just had dirt lots. I saw some shady people out at a couple houses.
This added a little distance. I then saw the person from earlier. This time, he was walking in the neighborhood. It was much less weird there. I headed up the hill and back toward the school.
I ran a little out and back toward the main road. Then, I decided to take the second dead end road. Up to this point, things were going great. It was comfortable and there was no rain.
I was around mile 5 when the rain finally started coming. By now, I was figuring on 7 miles and not even ruling out 10 miles. I saw flashes of lightning every now and then, but heard almost no thunder.
The rain luckily didn't get too heavy. I started toward the school and went around a circle. I decided to instead cross the road and take a run through the other neighborhood. I ended up going out on parts of the route that I normally run. I was around 6 miles now.
I cut the normal loop short though. I was starting to feel kind of crappy. My legs didn't have it as I approached mile 7. I saw more lightning too.
I just cruised along though. By now, it was clear that I'd just be shooting for 8 miles. I'd almost be there when I got back to the school. One of those speedy cars flew around a corner. Luckily, it went the other direction.
I came on into the school. I had to wait to cross the road at first, so I ran a brief out and back. I finished up in the school parking lot with 8 miles.
The run was more productive than I thought it might be. I was quite happy with myself. It was a solid effort and I got lucky. The storms were very nasty about an hour later.
My legs are feeling the 34 miles I have on them over the last 3 days. I hope they recover well overnight. I plan to run 3 more days this week and hopefully get 31 more miles. A 65 mile week would be great. The weather should be better tomorrow. Maybe I can run on trails, although they'd be sloppy for sure.
8 miles - 1:15:44 (9:28 pace) 64 feet of elevation gain
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