An ounce of prevention...

I confess: this post is a direct result of my run this morning. It SUCKED!

I live on a hill. This makes it somewhat tricky to plan loops that start and end at my house - no matter where I go, there is up-hill running involved. So last night I was playing with the run mapping on My Loops on livestrong.com that I mentioned yesterday. I had the idea that since it is a rather big hill, that I could plan the run to go along the crest of the hill, and therefore have no up-hills. It ended up looking like an out-and-back kind of loop - 17 blocks down, turn right, go 2 blocks, turn right again, 17 blocks back. The elevation chart under the map concurred - it showed only very minimal changes in elevation, and nothing very long in duration. Yay!

So we went out this morning, and the minute we stepped out the door a feeling of foreboding hit me - it was already 80 degrees out, and only 8 am. Uh-oh. Well, I thought, I may have to stay late at work tonight, and according to my hubby it only got down to 73 overnight anyway, so it wasn't likely to get any better. So, off we went.

First problem: there were a lot more side streets on this route than there are on the one we normally run. That means more stop-and-go's, more holding the kids' hand across streets, and just a generally difficult time keeping a rhythm of any kind.

Second problem: there was a section of about 2 blocks on the "out" leg that had no sidewalk! Not a big deal for adults, but with little kids, it threw a kink in things.

Third problem: it was really hot, and despite a lack of clouds, managed to be humid too. Also, for whatever reason, my son is more comfortable in pants than running shorts so he was roasting not long into the run. This made for uncomfortable, overheated, and therefore, whiny kids.

Fourth problem: the elevation chart LIED!! The whole 17 blocks back were UPHILL!

But how could this have happened? That's what I wanted to know! I had left the map open on my computer and when I went to look, there had been some kind of glitch where it registered my starting point at sea-level. This means that the whole rest of the route looked about level. After going back and reloading the page, and setting up the run again, the actual elevation chart looked like this:

D'OH!!!

The moral of the story: maybe drive new routes first?