STR: Days 24-25

Day 24
Wednesday saw me get back to my usual routine of alternating strength-training workouts. And it goes like this:
5 sets of 5 reps of one-legged squats + 10 deep squats: some lucky few of these were actually getting close. I'm still using a short chair, and the goal right now is to just touch the chair and get right back up (as opposed to plopping down when I get there). A few times, I achieved my goal (however ugly the process of doing so might have been). 2 minute rest between sets.
5 sets of 5 reps of one-armed-push-ups Once again, some lucky few were actually one-armed. The others had the other arm as a spotter.
3 sets of Australian pull-ups to failure: 2 minutes break in between
3 sets of push-ups to failure: 2 min break
3 sets, alternating between reverse crunches and back raises: no rest between sets, 20 reverse crunches and 10 back raises.

Day 25
Today I did the long run that usually happens on Tuesdays. When I started off, I wasn't entirely sure that I would do the whole 6.62 miles, but by the time I was 2+ miles into it, I figured I might as well. It was a foggy morning when I started--not so bad that I couldn't see cars speeding toward me (or, sadly, that I couldn't see the cat that didn't see the car speeding toward it) but there was enough cover to keep it cool on the first half of my run, even though I was up and at it a little later than usual.

Last time I did this run, I was a little daunted by the hills that came at me in the 3rd and 4th miles, but this time I knew they were there and hit them pretty well. I ended up with a slightly faster time than what I had last week (57:05 vs. 57:37), but this time my time for the first half was faster than the second half, even with the kick at the end. So it goes. That came out to an 8:37 pace overall, which I'll happily take at this point.

What I won't happily take is all the aches and pains that came with today's run. I'm not sure why today was special, but I ran into a few things today that haven't bothered me the rest of the summer. First up: inner-thigh chafing. Okay, it's not like this is a new thing that I've never encountered before, but I really thought that box-briefs had taken care of this. Shows what I know--I'd started to feel discomfort just a couple miles in and, well, that didn't just go away. Speaking of chafing, let me just say that chapped nipples are not something I want to spend a lot of time thinking about, much less speaking about. Apparently, I need to ditch cotton shirts for runs and, while I'm at it, consider additional protective measures. We'll see.