Running with lightning

Not running LIKE lightning. I'm still working on that.

Yesterday I got a nice tech shirt in the mail. Here's a photo. Can you guess who it's from? I thought you could. I got the large, and it fits me perfectly. I don't think anyone would call me lean, though I aspire for that. I think "solidly built" is fair. If my shoulders were any bigger it would be a little snug under the arm. The neck is just right. The body fits closely enough to not flap in the wind, but not so tight as to bind. It's a light tech fabric, perfect for those hot and humid days. It's made by ALO. I don't know if they are for sale up here.

If American banks weren't so archaic, I'd probably buy another one. They gave her a hard time about my cheque, even though it clearly said US $ on it. I'm still waiting to see what the exchange rate was. Now that I've figured out paypal again, maybe I'll do it that way instead.

Oh, what the heck. Here's another photo, one Linda took. I'm not sure if it's me, or the camera that's a bit fuzzy here. My buddy Kelly B will frame this shot, since it's the only one of me she's seen where I'm not in a race and not holding a glass of wine.

Of course, I had to try for a run, that being the primary purpose. My legs were feeling pretty good from the stretching session yesterday, so I went down and stretched some more. There was a good click from my knee part way through this. Not loud, but good. I knew then I was going to have a good run.

I started out easy, and got right into a relaxed and comfortable warm up pace. My feet felt light and happy. The shirt was perfect, so I essentially forgot I was wearing it. After a little while I picked up the pace. For a while my heart rate was rock solid at 135, which is down near the bottom of zone 3, and my breathing was relaxed and easy.

This is one of the best runs I've had in a while. I was in the groove. My legs felt strong, I had a good turnover, the whole package. Still, there was a huge thunderstorm rolling in, so I didn't want to be out there forever. I chose to run my 5.5 K route up to Anderson so I wouldn't have to far to get home if it got horrible. I picked up the pace a bit, but was still running very comfortably, heart rate a bit over 140 now, but breathing still good.

The wind picked up and it got a bit colder. Passing our vet it started to rain, then rain harder, then really rain. This is a long gradual uphill, right into the wind. I was trying to stay strong, but in control. My heart rate was up a bit more, but breathing was still good. I hit 5.5 K in 36:30, which is a 6:38/K pace, or 9 Kph (10:40/mile). I turned around and headed for home past William Roper Hull Home, still running easy. Totally soaked from the rain, but my legs were still happy, my turnover was still good. I seem to be settling into about 88 steps per minute as a good pace. Just passing the Hull Home lightning struck the cell tower about 100 m from me. Holy Cow! I was seeing after images and my ears were ringing.

I ran easy enough that my heart rate was coming down gradually, but I noticed I was hardly breathing hard at all. No idea what my pace was there, but I could have gone on a long time. Just before getting home I hit 50 minutes and decided that was good. I'd had an excellent run, and could have kept going, but didn't want to overdo it. Some of the leg muscles are still somewhat tight, so I was looking forward to a good stretching session, and more rollering.

My watch says the peak heart rate was 157, and I'll bet that was right after the lightning strike. The average was a bit higher than I thought it was going to be, but not so much I'm worked up about it. This was a super run for me! I wish they were all this good.