Sunscreen, Whole Foods and Intervals

Was a nice day today, just a little hot - 97 and sunnnnny. Decided to go for a walk to the Walnut Creek Whole Foods, and had some milled rice sushi (california roll - when in rome... ) and some watermelon. It is a 3.5 mile walk there, and my Neutrogena 20 SPF moisturizer sunscreen broke down pretty fast (I'm a sweater) and I could feel the heat of the sun. I made it to Safeway 3 miles down the trail, and I thought that my face would be beet red. (Side note: i have this pet peeve about being called a lobster when I get sunburned. Dunno why, just gets to me. I'd turn red from anger, but, well... you know.)

So anyway, apart from being called lobsterboy, we have these

things called "Safety Moments" at the beginning of each meeting at work. I swear to the almighty that no less than 20 of these moments have been regarding sun safety. Sunscreen. SPF. Heatstroke. Aloe Vera. We've had it all. So I came into the office a few weeks ago after pride

weekend, and was given the third degree. So there I was thinking I've done it again. So I stop at the Safeway, and get myself some Neutrogena Cool Spray 70 SPF sunscreen and spray this stuff all over my face and arms. It was cool, that was nice. It also had a nice fragrance. It seemed a little oily, and as I as running back, I kinda thought it looked like baby oil on my arms, and I seemed to be getting redder where it was. Now I was in regular shorts and polo shirt, and knowing that I had a 9 mile run later, I decided not to make a mad crazy run for the house, and just kept on walking. I didn't feel the heat on my face as much, so I felt that was pretty good, right?

Well, I got home, jumped in the shower, and turned on the water - way cold. I used my facial scrub abd scrubbed away, as I do for every unfortunate sun incident. Then I looked in the mirror... Nothing. No sunburn. No color whatsoever. No tan, not that I ever get one, but I had expected some red, something. So I have now become a Neutrogena fan. Good stuff. And the moisturizer gives you a "light glow.". Or it would if I have any tanability. I don't. So I finished up that nice walk, 7.3 miles total, and then took a little break. Refueled with some chocolate soy milk, a salad I got while at WF. Couple hours later, picked up some Broccoli Beef from the Panda Express - single order with less than 250 calories, so they say. Yum.

Then I was off to my what-turned-out-to-be 8.5 mile run. For the first 4 miles, I tried some intervals. I am new to these, but I really liked the mixing it up. Basically, I followed a simple pattern:

• 30 second walk,
• 30 second jog,
• 30 second all out run,
• 30 second jog,
• repeat

Made it easy to program my watch intervals this way. After I finished the intervals, I basically just ran, and when I heard the 30 second beep, I asked myself if I could go another 30 seconds.

I have to say tonight's run was the strongest I have felt since I started really training again. I felt light, no issues with the calves, and really had the upper body / lower body "disconnect" - where the top half is doing one thing and the bottom half is doing its own thing. One of my best times, too. Recovery was a junior popcorn and a hot dog at the movies. Harry Potter. Yeah, I'm a dork.

16 miles tomorrow. I have a whole new route to consider on the Ygnacio Canal Trail. If I can figure out how to post the route, I'll do it.