Blood, sweat, and rain

Another rain filled Saturday morning, another aborted ride.

My schedule is so morning based that even if the roads get 1/2 way decent by late morning or afternoon I can't ride. I'm getting a bit frustrated leaving my garage and waving by to my bike on the wall.

She's sad, I'm sad.

So I keep running. This is a good thing because I need to put the time in, I need to get the miles increased again. And I need to continue to work on getting out faster and getting my pace quick and steady. This has been a challenge so far, but I need to remember that I was never an uber runner and it will take a little bit of time.
I need to up my distance and was hoping for a 10 mile run. I'll get right to that answer and tell you I fell short at just under 8. But in fairness I did change my route due to ground conditions, and improvised other road extensions. This included a few longish uphills, not drastic but not easy either.
So as I changed this run route up 4 miles in I knew I would be over 7 but was hoping for over 8. My long run since my return has been at just over a 10k. This being said I feel stronger, lighter and more confident on the road than a month ago.

Without boring details of my run I will just say it was satisfying as hell. I was very proud of the distance and fairly happy with an even pace. Not fast by any stretch but a small notch above slothing.
I was soaked head to toe, and found once I pulled off my top layer that I had a bit of a combat issue.

No, I don't have a nipple ring ! Just a lack of applying this miracle juice called "body glide".
I vow from this moment on, any runs over a 5k get body glide applications.

That being said I felt a bit drained due to the on again off again rain, drizzle,rain.  also think that I now know that any run that is going to be past the 8 mile mark must have on the road fuel involved. The only thing I brought was a large hand held bottle filled with sport drink.
It was about 1/2 mile or so out that I really felt if I had a gel I would have used it.
So there I go, another lesson learned the hard way.

Congrats to Patrick over at the [THE ROAD] for his 1st place at the HB 5 MILE DERBY. Way to go brother.