It’s like breathing water…

I don’t know about where you live, but it is obscenely HUMID here!  And hot.  We’re talking in the 90’s here.  Yes, yes, I know you crazy Texans and Floridians are roasting as well, but there’s no denying the heat here.  Of course, I’m crazy enough to try to run in it.  Not overly successfully, mind you.

Yesterday I finally got in my nine miles with four at lactate threshold pace.  Well…sort of.  I headed out and did about 2.75 miles as a warm up, then geared up for speedwork.  I nailed the LT miles last time, but the weather was much more forgiving at that point in time.  I pounded my miles out for the first 2.5…thennnn I took a break.  I was breathing wayyyy too heavy and I felt terrible.  Took a break, moved on.  Half a mile later (at LT pace), I still felt awful.  Stopped and took another break.  It’s hot out here, I thought to myself.  My miles were in the low 7:00’s, which is about where I was last time.  My target range is something like 7:00-7:15.  I told myself I only had one more mile to go, and that I was going to NAIL 7:15 pace.  And that I did.

Here’s how it went down:

Thursday, August 20
9.02 miles in 1:11:23, avg pace of 7:55
Warm-up:  2.76 miles in 23:31, avg pace of 8:32
LT Miles:  4.00 miles in 28:30, avg pace of 7:08
               Splits:  7:06, 7:03, 7:06, 7:15  (With breaks…oops)
Cool down:  2.26 miles in 19:19, avg pace of 8:32

I think my mistake in doing this LT runs is that mentally I think that these runs should feel super hard and that I should be pushing the pace the entire time.  LT pace is somewhere between 15k-half marathon pace (or a pace you can hold for about an hour), and that’s still a long way to go!  I shouldn’t feel dead at the end of this workout.  In the first two miles, garmin told me I was dropping under seven minute pace, so I had to pull back.  I think I need to remind myself to run comfortably hard.  For me, 7:15 isn’t crazy fast.  While I’m sure the heat didn’t help, I can definitely improve on my pacing for these runs.

Onto today!  Another scorcher.  I checked weather.com when I got home, and it said “Feels like 97”…yikes!!  It’s a flashback to the 2007 Chicago Marathon…you know, minus 16 miles.  I managed a ten mile run thanks to:

1. Carrying water with me.  Little sips make all the difference.
2. Keep pace in check.  No records were broken today!
3. Running on the more-shaded direction of the trail.
4. Taking some breaks.  This direction on the trail has many more street crossing, so forced breaks were worked in.
5. Cool shower upon returning home.  So refreshing!

Some high school boys yelled some highly inappropriate comments at me (…thanks?), but other than that it was fairly uneventful.

Friday, August 21
10.05 miles in 1:24:41, avg pace of 8:25

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I had an extremely productive day off yesterday.  I located doctors around here in order to get a dentist and dermatologist appointment, went grocery shopping, bought a calendar so I can stop writing my schedule on scraps of paper, researched bridesmaids dresses for a wedding I’m in, got a package ready to mail, and did some laundry.  I feel accomplished.

Wouldn’t life be so much easier if we didn’t have to work??  I certainly think it would be.

On that note…off to work!  I hope everyone has a good weekend, I’ll be working.  :)