Life right now is in a bit of an upheaval with some changes in the works - I've cut my work hours back to only one day a week and enrolled in school, though I'm not sure when I'll start. In two weeks my older sons will be entering high school and I suspect that will feel like a part time job in and of itself, as we help them find their footing in the next four years. I don't do change well - even good change - and it'll take me a while to settle back in to my new life and get a new routine down pat, and I hope to add in an extra day of running to the mix. A mid-morning run will force me in and on the treadmill, which I think is better for my foot overall.
Speedwork Tuesday went fairly well - I can feel the heat and humidity making it SO much harder, but yes, we WILL be better for it come fall.
Friday Carin, Cherise and I met for what was supposed to be a 5-mile run but ended up being a 6-miler when hills sprints at the end were taken into account. This has been the week where the heat and humidity have peaked as far as I am concerned, so this was also a tough run. It's discouraging to be perfectly capable of doing a run, but external forces - such as nasty oppressing weather - hold you back.
This morning we had 16 miles on the schedule, and crafted a plan which allowed us to leave earlier than normal to avoid most of the heat of the day. This is all just smoke and mirrors because honestly, there hasn't been a cool point of any day this summer. My car thermometer read 83 sopping degrees. There was humidity dripping from the eves of my house. And it was 5 o'clock in the morning.
Our route got us to the park entrance at 6am where we met Cherise and Jodi. Our route also meant that we didn't spend much time in the park which was fine with me; I'm getting a little tired of that route, so mixing it up a bit has kept this training schedule a little fresher for me. After 3 miles in we turned around and headed back. I felt awesome, even though the it was so humid that my shorts were sagging from the humidity and sweat they had absorbed. At mile 12 I said that if I had a fresh set of clothes I could probably run forever. At mile 14 I knew fresh shorts or not, 2 miles was all I had left in me.
When our Garmins beeped 16 miles done we had high-fives for Carin, who had run the longest she'd ever run this morning. I had dropped 8 bottles of water along the route and we drank it all. Today's weather was truly some of the most difficult I've run in to date. When I got home I weighed my soaked shorts (Nike Tempo shorts) just to see - they were carrying just under two pounds of moisture. YUCK!
3 comments:
Nice run! I am itching to get back out there with you next week!
If you ever watch Seinfeld, there was an episode where George's pants kept making a funny swooshing noise everytime he started walking...that's what my soaked running shorts sounded like on Friday as i was running. So annoying. Great job on checking another long run off the list. San Fran will feel easy in October. I bet you will barely sweat at all.
To answer the chicken soup question. It's really just chicken broth for the sodium. The stuff they have at IM distance aid stations are much like ultra marathons where they have boiled potatoes w/salt, pbj sandwiches, defizzed coke...very different from marathon aid stations. You really need some real food and lots of salt/sodium when you are going that distance.
Sounds like your foot is better. I know what you mean about running in the heat and humidity. We're suppose to be in triple digits all this week. Guess I'll be out running before the sun is up.
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