Wednesday, August 4, 2010

west nile running

This last week of training has been incredibly difficult. I live in a rather humid environment, and in the last week we have had over nine inches of rain. Yuck. Fields are flooded all over, basements are taking water all over town, and the worst of it...the mosquitoes are HORRIBLE. 

Saturday I ran for 1 hour and 20 minutes. It was extremely foggy because of all of the moisture in the air, so I decided to run in town (which I hate doing because it is tough to get a lot of miles out of my little college town).  Things were fine, until I tried to run on our bike trail, at which time I was nearly carried away by the mosquitoes. I sustained at least 30 bites on my back in a matter of minutes, and I had to finish my time running down and back the only street in town with no grass on it, which also happens to be the busiest street in town. Not the best run, to say the least.

Tuesday I was supposed to run sprints at the HS track. I showed up, ran one lap, and was chased away by swarms of mosquitoes, sustaining about another 30 bites or so, this time on my legs (I guess because my back probably didn't have room for more bites). I finished my sprints running down the middle of my street, and although it did help a bit, I managed to also swallow about 6 bugs while I ran.

These things are monsters. They are everywhere, and there is no respite from them. In fact, I am going to run today on the treadmill, and I hate the treadmill. But I hate being eaten alive more.

I understand that nine inches of rain is ridiculous, but it is still horrible. Between the heat, the bugs, and the flooding, I would much rather train in the winter, even though where I live that usually means running in twenty below temps.  It sure beats this last week!

I'm just continuing on with my training program until West Nile kicks in, and then I may take a few days off....

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