Don't stop 'til you get enough

The luck of the magical napkin draw at work yesterday had me spending the day in the air conditioned inside section (I wait tables/bartend at an indoor/outdoor oceanfront restaurant). It was slow, I was cold (thanks AC!) and I had myself convinced it would be a beautiful day for a 5 mile run. For some reason, I seemed to blatantly overlook my coworkers who were coming in from the outside sections red faced and dripping in sweat. I was too busy dancing to Michael Jackson in the kitchen, it was the only thing on the radio. Keep On With The Force Don't Stop!

Quick change of subject but I promise it's relevant... remember that photo contest I blogged about a while back on RunnerDude's blog? Well, I won! Woohoo! And my prize was a $50 gift certificate to R.E.I. At the recommendation of Denise over at Running Journal, I decided I wanted to order an Amphipod hand held water bottle since I loathe my hydration belts. I also decided to order a bunch of different nutrition options to experiment with this summer to see if I can figure out a way to avoid the nasty GI irritation we like to refer to as "GU belly". ick. So anyway this stuff just came in the mail, and I was stoked to try it out.

Now, back to me dancing to MJ at work: When I was finally cut from my shift, I headed out to the back bar armed with my new Amphipod Hydraform Handheld Pocket water bottle, and a tube of NUUN tablets. It was going to be test day! I filled the bottle with water and added one Lemon Lime flavored nuun, waited the allotted two minutes, and tasted. EWW! It tasted like fake lime flavored salt water. Or a really bad, watered down margarita, haha. Not at all gatorade-ish like I was suspecting. I guess I made a horrible face, because my co-worker said "let me taste!" Funny how whenever someone says something tastes/smells/looks disgusting, we all have to taste/smell/look for ourselves, haha. Anyway, co-worker concurred: nuun was pretty gross. BUT I was still going to give it a shot: and I'm glad I did.

So I take off for what was to be a 5 mile run, at 3:00 pm under the blazing, 90 degree sun, in 75 % humidity (it was low today!) . I decided to run down the boulevard to people watch. It's definitely entertaining, especially to see all the "that girl is insane" looks from tourists who are breaking a sweat simply by sight-seeing.

First things first: Amphipod: AWESOME! I have itty bitty hands. No really, my LIVESTRONG bracelet is not an adult, not even a youth, but a freaking bracelet made for a Build-A-Bear. I kid you not. I'm aware that is somewhat freakish, but it is what it is. I also have the upper arm strength of a fruit fly. So I was really concerned about getting the large 20 oz amphipod, and considered the "light" version, which is only 12 oz. Denise told me to get the 20 oz, as running long distance with only 12 oz was pretty pointless. I figured she was right, so I hesitantly ordered the 20 oz. I'm glad I did! I hardly felt the thing while running! It literally clings to your hand, the strap holds it in place for you. And the shape is very contoured to your hand so I didn't feel tense trying to hold it. Heather's overall rating of the Amphipod Hydraform: A +++. Peace out, hydration belt,you and I were not meant to be.

So back to the run. Hot doesn't even begin to describe. And the cool (well, cooler than the air at least) ocean breeze was blocked by the massive hotels, giving me absolutely no relief. And the nasty nuun concoction? It tastes AMAZING when you are sweating your bootay off. Just a little more satisfying than water, and not overwhelmingly sweet like Gatorade. I'll have to give it another test on a longer run, but for now, I was satisfied with it. And no yucky belly-although we've yet to add any carbs to this run/nuun equation.

Every beach wear store I passed had the radio on, and I'm not kidding every single store I passed I heard it: Keep On With The Force Don't Stop Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough. Thanks MJ for the motivation. I couldn't help but laugh: with all of the hit songs this man had, why was I hearing the SAME one every time I turned around? It made me want to break into a dance in the middle of Ocean Boulevard. Oddly enough I probably would have blended in. But instead, I kept running.

At two miles, the heat was absolutely brutal. I was insane for taking on a midday run in this weather. So I ran down to the beach and headed back. The hot breeze made the run somewhat more bearable, but the sand made my legs burn! In a good way of course, as I know all that resistance will only make me stronger. I finished my four miles in 36 minutes with a 9:05/mile average. It was hot (did I mention that yet?) but I can feel the progress I'm slowly making. Hooray for progress! Tomorrow will be this weeks long run of 5 miles. Most likely at 5:00 am before the sun comes up.

Happy weekend friends, good luck to everyone racing, and remember...
Keep On With The Force Don't Stop Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough....