Dog Days of Summer Running

June ended on an upward trend with the completion of last week's planned mileage and marking my highest weekly total all year. That said, June's tally looks like a crap sandwich with really good bread, as my last four weekly totals were 23, 7, 10 and 25 miles.

July arrived with a 10-miler Sunday morning with Mrs. Viper riding her bike alongside me on the Towpath as the temperature climbed into the mid-90s before we were finished. That run pushed me over 300 miles for the year.

It felt good to begin the month on the right foot. Here's last month's statistical rundown:

• Total Miles: 47 miles (10 runs)
• Total Time: 10.81 hours
• Highest Weekly: 25 miles
• Average Weekly: 11.75 miles
• Average Pace: 13:47/mile
• The Monthly Dif: 0 miles (47 miles in May)

My monthly mileage stayed the same, but my pace continued to get slower. For three months in a row now, my average speed has decreased by at least one minute per mile. Part of that may be due to one of the toughest runs of my life Saturday.

But first, let's pick up where we left off on Friday, when I had hoped to make up for the skipped mileage from Thursday's shortened sweat-fest.

With a half-day at my disposal and after a mid-afternoon thunderstorm cooled things off, I went for my first barefoot run since the end of May. The three-mile jaunt around my block was so much fun that I decided to try running barefoot on some trails for my five-miler the next day.

After logging nearly 20-minute miles, I have just one question. Why is there so much gravel in the world?

Here, I was worried about kicking a rock or a root. I only kicked one rock, immovable though it was, but the gravel was the most daunting terrain. Of the five miles I "ran," three had to be over gravel, or so it seemed.

The parts that weren't gravel at the Pine Grove and Ledges trails were a joy. The parts that were gravel, however, can go right to hell.