Summer rain

. . . is my new favorite thing about summer.

Here's another thing: I don't wake up until I have to. Well, I guess that's true for anybody. Let me rephrase: I don't wake up until I want to.

And today that meant 9:30, to give myself time for breakfast before heading to the gym for my appointment with TTT. I decided to forego the 6-mile strides workout until later, since last time I did it before lifting, I regretted it. The turbo-charged 30 minutes with TTT were hard to get through after such an intense run.

Here's the best part about showing up at the gym today: TTT told me 3 (count 'em. 3) times that I looked smaller today. Hot damn. Must be true. That lady knows bodies. I don't know whether it's all finally coming together, or if it's the cleaner eating or the more intense running, but something's working. Yay! Makes that 14-miler coming up Sunday seem like a good thing. . . .

So after lifting, I did 30 minutes on the ARC machine and according to the machine burned up 347 calories. I don't know if I believe those computers, but I certainly sweat a good bucketful.

As the day wore on, the temperature got closer and closer to 95, and I thought, dang, I don't want to run in the heat. Then, BOOM. About 5 :30 the heavens opened up, thunder rumbled, lighting struck (not far from here, from the sounds of things--I actually jumped), and as my college French T.A. would say, "How you say, 'it rained frogs and dogs?'" A beautiful sight over the lake. Lovely crisp sounds, too.

And yet I still hadn't gotten my run in. And I still had on my running clothes from the morning and I really wanted to go.

So, I waited for the electrical storm to die down, and off I went. Ran easy for about a mile then ran my heart out for 20 seconds followed by a 40 second recovery and repeated 20 times. Easy run home from there. Did 6 miles in 46:35.

Running in the rain is my new favorite activity for the following reasons:

1. The smell of the earth, the woods intensifies as the rain bounces off them;
2. The steam rising up from the hot asphalt as the cool rain hit it made me feel as if I were in the mountains of County Wicklow, Ireland;
3. If the sweat was rolling off me, I couldn't tell;
4. Heat? What heat?

Wildlife sightings: two jackrabbits. Love them. I have also seen several deer in the past couple of weeks. They are so majestic. And they give me the same look I'm giving them--that "oh my God, who are you, do you see me? Wow."

And a note to all y'all dog owners who only let your dogs piddle and poo in your little fenced in yards: please take those poochies for a walk. And then pick up their poo like the rest of civilization. For their sake, and for the sake of the determined runners out dashing about on rainy days. That stank makes our joyous nature runs even less pleasurable than running on 95-degree garbage days. Please and thank you.

I have another favorite summer first to report: I ate a zucchini I grew myself! Delish! It became a part of my new favorite snack that kept my tummy from rumbling for three hours! Here's the recipe: blend 1/4 cup cottage cheese with a little drizzle of olive oil, a spoonful of onion soup mix (I used Mrs. Grass's) and a good crack of pepper. Dip as many celery, cucumber, and zucchini sticks as you want and a couple of carrot sticks and grape tomatoes. Yummy and so much veggie fiberliciousness.

All right. Tomorrow's an off day, and I mean off. Unless I get a chance to chase a rainbow or two on my bicycle. . . .