Rachel returned to bed, but I decided to run hills at the arboretum, and if the lightning got too close I would take cover at the laundromat across the street. When I arrived at the hill the wind picked up and the air temperature dropped about 10 degrees. It felt nice, and I began running up and down the hill at 50k pace (slow). Up and down, up and down, after an hour it started to rain, but the thunder disappeared, so I could breathe easy and enjoy the struggle. After 90 minutes the sky turned blue and the heat/humidity rose steadily. Unlike my long run 2 days ago where I was forced to stop after 4 hours due to heat/humidity, I was able to remain in control and continued running the hill until the 3 hour mark.
Walking home after, my confidence about the upcoming 50k increased, and I felt my fitness had improved so that if I was having a good race day I would not struggle until the final 8-10 miles, which means I should be able to finish.
After the hills I was feeling a bit tired and after collecting wood and mulch at the landscape recycling center I took it easy indoors by taking a nap for an hour.
When I woke the day had gotten hotter, and it was now too late to head to Kickapoo for tubing down the river. So I instead took a hike to the cemetery and walked the hill for 1 hour. When I returned home at 6:00pm I decided to call it a day and finally sat down to relax.
In the evening before bed I played guitar for 45 minutes, same old stuff - jamming to Buddy Guy.
My friend David from college is coming this Friday for a weekend of athletics - tennis/basketball/running. I am hoping our tennis match rivals our epic games from the 90's when we played together in Chicago.
