Never Ending Hill of Doom

Today, my Middle Distance moved up to 6 Miles. Normally, I'll knock out 6 Miles by running to Kircher Park and back. Today, I felt like keeping it relaxed and changing courses so I made my way to Camp Wyman.

The beautiful thing about running to Camp Wyman is that it's on a flat, quiet, shady, back road lined with trees, a creek, and some amazing houses.

But everything comes with a price. The road to Camp Wyman is remote and shady but it's also at the bottom of what I like to call "The Never Ending Hill of Doom". It's almost impossible to go for a long run in Eureka without running into hills, but I think this is the most intimidating hill in town. It seems to go on forever, it's really steep, and it turns several corners so every time you think you're at the top, you come around a turn and see... even more hill.

It was a fair trade-off today. I just stayed relaxed and didn't push the pace, treating myself to a scenic run in the shade. In return, I had to run up the Never Ending Hill of Doom. Fair enough.

As a special treat, I got to see my Middle Distance Old Man. (I hope he never reads this and takes offense to calling him an 'old man'.) He must have gotten off to a late start this morning because I was heading home before he even got to the hill where we've been passing each other. I thought it was funny that he was wearing the exact clothes I described in my last post about him (green shorts, tall white socks, and a towel draped over his neck), so I shot a quick video as I ran by and said hello. Then I realized that I have three pair of the exact same running shorts so I've probably been wearing the same clothes every time he sees me too. I caught him by surprise this morning, so he didn't share any advice this time.

After work, I went to the gym and did a little lifting until Liz met me for a swim. Usually, swim teams are taking up the lap lanes in the outdoor pool so we're confined to one lane in the indoor pool. I don't know if it was too hot for practice, but there was no swim team today so I was excited to have the opportunity to swim outside. That excitement was short lived.

It was still crazy hot and humid so I was looking forward to jumping into the cool water. Unfortunately, the water was the warmest pool water I've ever swam in. It was absolutely no relief from the heat and was surprisingly uncomfortable. It was odd how hard it was to breathe with the water that warm. It was actually hard to tell when to breathe because I would turn my head to take a breath and I couldn't tell a difference between the hot, wet air and the hot, wet water. Blah.

After 300m, we retreated to the indoor pool and the water felt luxuriously cool by comparison. Another 450m indoors and then I left for home while Liz took her turn at lifting.

A productive start to the week!

Tuesday
Goal For The Day: Middle Distance
Distance: 6.00 Miles.
Time: 45:40. 7:36 Avg. (7:28, 7:32, 7:33, 7:11, 8:03, 7:48)
Route: Camp Wyman Loop.
Conditions: 81 degrees/humid. 7:00AM.

Goal For The Day: Swim
Distance: 750 meters. (5 x 150m).
Location: Fenton Rec Center Pools

Notes: Slower pace on my run but it was nice to go for a relaxing morning run. The heat wasn't as bad this morning. It was nice to get back in the pool tonight.

Daily Miles: Run - 6.00 Miles. Swim - 750 meters.
Blog Totals:
  Run - 111.22 Miles.
  Bike - 67.68 Miles.
  Swim - 4,450+ meters.