Friday, Friday, Friday! It’s Friday! Woooooooo!
I know it, and my legs know it. They feel tired just sitting here after last night’s 4-miler. I hit the trail at Gilruth later than usual, around 8:00, after taking Chris to the airport. It was hot, but I wanted to get outside and away from the treadmill, so I told myself that I’d walk for one minute every half mile. I am a little worried that I’m becoming too dependent on the run/walk thing; however, it is a big mental boost to know that I have a breather coming up. Even with one minute walking each half mile (that would be two minutes of walking in each mile), I finished the run in 43:26 with splits of 10:38, 10:54, 10:54, and 10:59. Four sub-11:00 miles in July heat and humidity! Hurrah.
The downside, of course, of running outside are the bugs. And man oh man are there bugs. First up was the enormous spider sitting in a web that crossed just above the trail. Tall people better watch out or they’ll have a palm-sized spider on their head. Then the mosquitos. God, the mosquitos!
It began when I stopped for my first walk break and felt a stinging sensation on my arm. Mosquito! I quickly slapped it. One down, a million to go. I should have realized that this was a sign of things to come — if walking is not enough movement to prevent the skeeters from attacking.
After the run, I quickly put on a clean shirt and headed to the softball fields for our late game. Bite, bite, bite went the mosquitos. I doused myself in Deep Woods Off (i.e. stuff that smells bad but has lots of DEET, which apparently keeps the biting beasties away), which helped for oh, about 15 minutes.
I played catcher, since Jen is busy working the mission. Home plate was a swirl of buzzing, biting insects of doom that made it necessary to actually concentrate on keeping the glove out and ready to catch the pitch, instead of using it as a makeshift fly-swatter. Er, skeeter-swatter.
Halfway through the game, a mosquito landed on my finger and started biting; it was the one place I hadn’t doused in bug spray. (By the way, if you put bug spray on your hands and then rub it on your face, it sort of burns. This should probably worry me. But it was more pleasant than mosquito bites.)
WHY DO PEOPLE LIVE IN HOUSTON???
I usually take a break at the halfway point during my out-and-back runs. It’s a huge boost.
However, I do remember in high school, the coach would encourage us never to walk in practice, or you’ll need to walk in races. I think that’s true. So, if you plan to take walking breaks during races, I’d do it during practice. If you don’t, I wouldn’t.
When I was with the Marines in SC, I wondered what that Marine-issue bug repellant was that they used in the nastiest swamps in the world. I found out is was Avon Skin-So-Soft. It actually is, IMHO, the most powerful insect repellent in the known universe. And it smells sweet, too.
Did they repackage it and call it “Super-Tough Kill-Em-All” bug repellant? Somehow the image of a bunch of Marines passing around a bottle of something called Skin-So-Soft seems, um, wrong.