Good Neighborhood Run Yesterday in the Pre-Summer Heat

A couple of days ago I wrote about how I want to raise the bar with my running, training to run longer distances and running my neighborhood courses which I did so effectively back in 2010-2013.  Early yesterday (Saturday) afternoon I happened to be off from work and the local weather was giving us all a reprieve from the rainstorms we had recently been experiencing...but the temperature had climbed up to 90 degrees.  No problem for me since the humidity was an acceptable 55%...I'd gone on many long runs before in the middle of the summer heat.  So I decided to run my basic designed course of 3.3 miles that goes up and down streets through my subdivision and the adjacent one, carrying a full bottle of Powerade Zero in my right hand and a couple of paper towels in my left.  I ran the course, taking short walking breaks every five minutes...and finished it easily while emptying that bottle, coming away with a sense of optimism about gradually increasing my distance over the next few runs.  Today I rode the home exercise bike some at a high resistance setting...after I get off from work tonight, probably at ten, I plan to go to my local 24/7 gym and run a little on their treadmill and/or use their elliptical cross-trainer.  I'm looking forward to getting back into better running shape.  My plan is to alternate days of long distance road runs with days of limited runs combined with the exercise bike and elliptical cross-trainer.  I'd really like to feel more confident about entering some of the longer races this fall, but more than anything I want to enjoy just getting out there on the road again and running for an hour or two...