Pretend these tacos are deer.
A weekend photo creep never materialized due to not caring, outdoor chores that needed choring, and too much footy to watch. Such is life.
After a week or two of incredible late summer weather with temps in the 70s and cold nights, summer’s back in a big way, and the heat and humidity are crazy, especially for chubby Michiganderburghers who dig doing shit outdoors such as myself.
Heat or no heat, a lumber/run was on tap for Monday morning on my standard 5-mile loop, and I was fully prepared to suffer; I mean, the worst that could happen is that I kill over in a heap of gelatinous beer-scented flesh, and I think most people, including myself, would probably welcome that.
With those thoughts of suffering on my mind, I had mentally prepared myself well in advance for a shit performance on the trails this morning. And I wasn’t wrong. However, just like Friday’s turd polishing, there were more than a few gleams of success today.
The first thing I noticed taking off down the trail was that my legs felt good. The second thing I noticed was the intense humidity, which was like trying to breathe with a plastic bag over my head (not that I’ve ever done that). 78˚ with 75% humidity at 7:40 AM, yikes!
Despite my legs feeling good, I was really having trouble maintaining my pace and felt like I was doing too much lumbering. Oddly enough, I beat my fastest outdoor mile time by 8 seconds with a 10:59 during that first mile. I almost stopped right there just to bask in the glow of seeing a number I’d never seen in my entire life.
My second mile was slower than the first at 11:31, but given that I DON’T RUN, I will take that in the face all day long.
This is where it gets worse.
By mile 3, I was completely drenched with sweat, my one flask of water was already halfway empty, and the steep sandy climb up Goshawk Trail was crushing me.
I contemplated just stopping and lumbering the rest of the loop and saving any “fitness testing” for later in the week when things cool down a bit. Ah, no.
Mile times were now over 12 minutes, and it was fucking with my head, so I tried to stop paying attention and just keep putting one foot in front of the other and look forward to any chance to run downhill.
With less than a mile to go, I was out of the water, hot as fuck, and struggling to keep any semblance of a pace. As I passed the artesian well on River Trail, I stopped and got a couple handfuls of ice-cold water to splash in my face to cool down, and then did my best to get the run done ASAP.
I finally made it back to Escape II with 5 miles in my feetz and was happy to see that despite the heat and humidity, I was still able to keep an 11:50 pace and finish in 59:11. My heart rate was crazy high, with an average heart rate of 152 with literally NO time in Zones 1 or 2. That’s crazy shit, especially for a junk mile addict like me!
I would have loved for less humidity, but stoked to have pushed hard enough to still get a sub-hour 5-mile loop in.
I’ve also made the executive decision that I will only do this particular 5-mile loop once a week to gauge fitness. That will ensure that I don’t get in a rut or spend too much mental energy comparing stats instead of enjoying the trails. I’ll still do a few “runs” per week, but only nerd out on one.
Tuesday’s plan is for a 5+ mile lumber with my camera, where I plan to spend as much time in Zone 2 as humanly possible AND take more water with me.
Once again, I took no photos. I did make some badass Soiled Chicken/Refried Black Bean Tacos for lunch on Friday, so just pretend the three tacos are the three deer I saw standing and looking at me as I ran past them today.
Later.
