More Tennis

Yesterday, Dori insisted on more tennis. The sun was still up around 4:30 and I urged Dori to wait for the sun to drop more, but I couldn't keep the girl off the court.

We played in heat (low 90s), but a slight breeze helped. Dori didn't last 90 minutes this time. She was fatigued after 45. It was much warmer yesterday than the day we played a few weeks ago. That said, there's no way she could have played tennis like this even earlier this summer. Her strength isn't all the way back, but I bet her red blood cell count finally crosses into the normal range this Thursday at her next monthly check-up.

I blew off my Monday morning run. Feeling sore and slightly exhausted, I stayed in bed until 6:30 (very late for me). I was in bed 10 hours last night after a two hour nap Sunday afternoon. My body simply needs more time to recover when running in this heat.

After work, I donned my running gear and headed out the door into the heat. It was 87 degrees with a 73 degree dewpoint. Thick stuff, but not as thick as this. Can you imagine how those marathoners in China are going to feel in a few weeks?

I was determined to run a quick 3.5 miler, even in tough conditions. The course I picked had some hills, but nothing like Saturday's run. My pace at 2.75 miles was 8:49/mile. I was gasping for air with a dry, scratchy throat. For 20 seconds, I walked and swigged warm water that was cold 20 minutes before, then started up again, getting back into a decent rhythm after ascending the last hill. I finished 3.5 miles in 31:23, an 8:58 pace. Not bad in the slop.

Congratulations to Cousin Laura, who ran a 1:56:25 in the Nike NYC Half Marathon yesterday, placing 3634 among about 17,000 runners and 1108 among the ladies. Very impressive!