Vacation....Finally!!!

My sister came into town yesterday with her husband. We all met up at Cindy's house in Huntington and went to the Cheesecake Factory out there for dinner. I was stuffed and couldn't even eat dessert. Imagine that given the name of the place. lol.

They're going to Vermont for a wedding, and are going to stay at my ex-stepmother's for awhile, but are coming back Monday afternoon. When they do we'll be having some fun in New York and out in Long Island for sure.

Yesterday also marked the first day I've taken off from running in quite awhile. However next week I am off! So I plan on making some running jaunts to places I've not been in a while or not at all.

Speaking of jaunts, I've run close to 1100 miles this year so far:

According to my calculations, I am now somewhere near Brush Creek, Missouri.
When I had gotten to St. Louis, I had a big decision to make on whether or not I would head
west to KC or take the southern (hotter) route to Tulsa, Oklahoma City and eventually Albuquerque. I've finally decided to head to Palm Springs as my last stop before turning North and coming back. I have relatives that live in Palm Desert and also near Riverside. They all lived in Palm Springs at one point, and it's damn pretty out there too. At my projected rate of roughly 1100 miles per 6 months, it will take me until early spring of next year to reach my destination. And if I continue this pace, I probably will be back to New York at some point in the fall of 2010.

UPDATE:
After coming home from work, I decided to give New York's 89 degree heat a run for it's money by trying out a new run called BAAM! Short for street & avenue names Burns, Austin, Ascan, and Metropolitan, BAAM! is a nice mix of traffic and trees, people and peace, and sun and shade, all through classic streets of Forest Hills. It's a little over 5 miles, but on a day like today, it felt like 10 hard miles.

Here's the map below:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/ has become my favorite mapping guide. And now that it supported Garmin GPS importing (for example, I did not plot these points above. Garmin and MapMyRun did it for me!), I am officially hooked.

Hidden Treasure: A sneaky LIRR overpass that connects 67th Avenue to Austin Street.

Knowing of the heat, I made sure to load up with a bottle of Gatorade prior to the start of my run. I drank half the bottle before even taking off, and then sipped away throughout the course. I was finished by the time I got to the very busy intersection of Austin St. and Continental Avenue.

The heat really got to me, but I did this deliberately. I need to get many more runs in the heat, if I plan to ever be an all-weathered athlete. My biggest issue is the loss of electrolytes, especially potassium in the hot weather. When I lose too much of it, my feet cramp up badly. If there is a doctor in the house that could tell me more than just to take a salt packet, this would be a good time to provide some feedback! ....For if perspiration is my denomination then I am definitely overpaying....