Roll With It, Baby

Today was intended to be a needed rest day for me.

I went to bed last night at 9 pm and on a Saturday night for Pete’s sake! I did lay in bed reading running sites on the laptop until 10 or 10:30 pm so I guess that’s not bad. I was beat and achy from the 8 mile run that morning.

I remember the days when I was younger that bedtime was something I dreaded. I start looking at the clock now waiting for that magic hour!

I woke up this morning at 5:40am and yesterday before 6. If it was a work day, I would have been so sleepy and tempted to sleep in. I am not sure why I wake up so early. It’s usually because Peyton comes knocking at the door for me to open it so he can jump up in the bed with us for his individual attention! 🙂

We walked the dogs, went to get grocery and I mowed and weed-eated the lawn.  That was supposed to be my cardio exercise today. I do love our yard. I get an intrinsic satisfaction by doing yard work. All the flowers, lilacs, mums and roses are looking great. Our birdhouses and bird feeders are full. I love just sitting and watching.

On days that I don’t run…I get anxious. I’ve heard this will get worse as I start running more miles.  I do have new products to try so I decided to do a recovery type run for a short 2 miles to try them out.

(1) The Endura Cool Towel

(2) Nathan’s Quickshot Hydration

The cooling towel actually does cool when you follow the directions. I wore it around my neck while I was running and it was very warm here today. I have my doubts that it will cool for hours but maybe. You can supposedly reactivate it from the accumulated sweat. But..it does cool and I found that refreshing and especially since I have a hard time sweating. My big issue with it is not having a way to keep it on my neck while running. I tucked it inside the straps of my top and it kept slipping out. Maybe I can use a safety pin or something. I have plenty of those! 🙂

The Nathan hand-held hydration bottle is pretty cool. It has a comfortable strap and you can slip your thumb in it and not have to hold it. It’s easy to squirt the water in your mouth with no issues. I thought the thing around my hand would bother me and maybe it would on a longer run but it was fine today. The only downside that I saw was how small it was but I chose it that small. I know I would not like running with the bigger around my hand.

On this short run today, I did burn about 300 calories more due to the heat, I think…but I made the mistake and wore some old “Fila Skeletoes” that I had bought back when I started running. They are similar to the Vibram 5 fingers but were a bit cheaper ($70) vs ($100). The are nice for trail running but running on asphault with them is and always was a big mistake. I found that out the first couple of times I tried to run with them. I felt every pebble and stick that I stepped on. Not to mention that I don’t like feeling the jarring in my knee with every single step. I must have cushion of some kind. One of my impulse and silly purchases early in my running life! 🙂

I’m relaxed and watching the St. Louis Cardinals now but one more thing before I sign off…..

I found something incredible to eat today that I am obsessed with: Dried Mango with Chipotle seasoning. I could take a bath in that stuff! Well…if it wasn’t chile seasoned! 🙂 I found them in the bulk section at Lucky’s Natural Grocery today. I’ve wanted to buy some for a while because they look so sexy. Remember once I told you that I like sexy looking food like oysters, crayfish, mussels, strawberries…etc. Well, these looked sexy and when I finally tasted them, I ate half a pound! Back to Lucky’s tomorrow to get more.

Tomorrow is another running day for me but usually Monday’s are my rest day. I usually do a solo run through our local Memorial Cemetery every Memorial Day. It’s always beautifully lined with 100s of American Flags honoring our fallen and deceased military men and women. I always get emotional on that run.

I better hit the roller. I am learning that is is my friend.

 ~Roll On~