4.6 miles
bottom of franklin hill and back
63 degrees
What a beautiful morning! The first 3 miles of run felt good. When I stopped to walk up the last quarter of the franklin hill then started running again, my left knee and hip felt tight. I wonder if I need to cut back a lot on my running and focus on swimming and biking for the rest of July?
10 Things
- roller skiers! 15-20 of them all in a row — the clack of the skis, the click of the poles
- rowers! didn’t see them, but heard the bullhorn and the coxswain instructing the rowers
- a glimpse of shimmering water through the trees
- someone sleeping under the franklin bridge
- the sh sh sh of soft, sandy grit under my feet near the trestle
- several bikes flying past me on the way down the franklin hill
- greeting one runner as I passed him from behind — good morning!
- bright yellow and green shirts on runners I encountered
- a woman walker in a bright pink sweatshirt
- passing a woman running who was listening to some guy talking — was it Ant? Stage 10 of the tour de france?
That was difficult to come up with 10 things. Was it because the run was difficult? I’m distracted?
Listened to the traffic and my breathing as I ran north, Camelot as I ran south.
bike: 8 miles
lake nokomis
74 degrees
Biked with Scott to the lake. Nice! We took the trail on the way there, the streets on the way back. The streets were less fun — too many bumps and holes that I couldn’t see. Just a reminder that I bike so well on the trail because I’ve memorized the path, every curve, crack, bump.
swim: 3 loops
lake nokomis open swim
75 degrees
The first loop was smooth, fast, no swells. Excellent. But by the time I started the second loop it started to become choppy. No worries. I happened to notice that they had placed the first green buoy out farther than they usually do. Nice — since I saw it, I didn’t get off course at all. I might have seen a few silver streaks below me in the water — fish?! Saw some swans, lots of yellow buoys tethered to swimmers, a couple planes. No ducks or seagulls or geese.
favorite stretch: after rounding the last green buoy, swimming parallel to the beach, heading towards the first orange buoy and the start of another loop. Such a cool sight, seeing the orange buoy far off.
Glad I only did 3 loops. As I exited the water, I realized it was raining — sprinkling. It’s funny how hard it is to tell that it’s raining when you’re swimming.
Anything else? Only remember feeling/seeing vegetation once: at the start of the swim, heading towards the orange buoy for the first time, I crossed over some milfoil growing up from the bottom.
An excerpt from a new book, Elixir, about water: In the Ladies’ Pool