Outdoor Training Run - Big Dry Creek - Sunday, June 13

It had been in the upper 40's, low 50's for 2 days. Cold. Rainy. L was insistent on doing our long run outside (she is contemplating boycotting the treadmill). Luckily, by the time we headed out around 2:15, it had stopped raining, and although it was still overcast, it was a balmy 55 degrees when we headed out. I had every intention of doing 8 miles, but L decided we should go further... This is how gloomy it was at the 5 mile turn-around:

The trail we run is partially paved, part trail. It was WET. The parts of the trail that weren't paved were sorta like running in quicksand. Many areas that were paved were partially flooded. I was pretty happy that I had decided to wear my older running shoes. By the time we were done, I was pretty muddy.

 This section was flooded enough that a few ducks decided it would be a good place to hang out:

Of  note from today's run:

1. I finally used the Amphipod fuel belt. Wow. The thing is pretty awesome. I decided that as chilly as it was (and since we normally go out with nothing at all) that we would fill 2 of the 10 oz bottles. The belt actually came with 4, but since I hadn't run with it yet, I was not quite ready for so much. I was pretty happy to have the water after running 5 miles. Any warmer, and I'll definitely want the extra 2 bottles filled, maybe even with gatorade. Also, I had to adjust it a bunch the first few miles or it bounced around a lot. Other than that, it was fabulous.
2. For my birthday last month, W got me a heart rate monitor strap to work with the Garmin  - it was finally synced and ready to go (we were just doing it wrong... haha). As I thought, I work SUPER HARD when I run. I now have an additional nifty chart when I sync my runs on the computer. Here's what my heart rate looks like:

W is going to help after seeing some secondary information after my semi-impromptu race in BFE (aka Rollingsville?? Somewhere I've never heard of, and a lot further away than I thought).
3. In preparation of possible rain, I decided to wear a full hat vs. the visor. Any warmer than 55-60 degrees is probably too hot to be running in a cotton hat. Next run I may wear the hideous Canyonlands hat that seems to be made of mesh or something.

Anyway, the 10 miles were hard (as is evidenced by the heart rate chart), but it wasn't the worst ever. Hurrah.