I knew it was going to be a tough run today when I looked at the forecast.... 94 degrees Fahrenheit. Nightmare temperatures. Normally we run at or after dusk, when it has already started to cool down quite a bit. We couldn't do that today, however, because we've got company coming over tonight. That meant we'd have to brave the scorching afternoon sun. Blech.
We ran along the same route I mapped on DailyMile.com last Saturday, a 2 mile run through the Azalea District. The first split was 13:00min/mile; second split was right around the same time. It was pretty demoralizing. I felt like (and said out loud, I think) the entire run was a total waste of time and I might as well just go home. Matt pointed out that a year ago, I would not have even walked outside for a mile in this heat. He was a great encouragement the whole time, although his methods were a bit unorthodox (in the last half-mile, he kept insisting that I "frolic, just once". It's a joke that came up when we started trail running. A "frolic" is basically a jubilant arm-flailing Sound of Music skip.)
The good news is that my breathing stayed steady and I had little or no complaints from any joints. I didn't have any nausea (like last time I ran in the heat), and I didn't feel like I was going to pass out (just really, really dizzy).
I was pretty grumpy the whole run. We did not play any games. Matt told me afterwards that he didn't expect me to make it through, based on our past experiences with running in the heat. He said was really proud of me, which made me feel pretty awesome.
After beating myself up for the abysmal time for most of the run, I remembered something I had read a while back in a Runner's World article by Jeff Galloway (the running coach who designed the half-marathon training program I'm about to take up). He recommends that runners increase their pace by 30 seconds per mile for every increase of 5 degrees above 60 degrees Fahrenheit. I thought this seemed pretty excessive at the time, but it turns out that we accidentally followed his advice today. My best time at around 60 degrees is about 9:45 min/mile. Following his formula would have put us at 13:15 (we ran right about 13:00).
I hope it's a long, long, long time before I have to run outside again at 2:00pm in 94 degree weather. I definitely learned a lesson today about placing values in artificial number goals; I could not have run faster if I wanted to (and I really did want to, as badly as I wanted to quit and go home). I did the best I could do today, and that's got to count for something.
It's going to be a long, hot summer. We're discussing some creative strategies for working around the heat (like working in some pool running), but the truth is that I'm going to have to do it from time to time if I want to really prepare for this October half-marathon. October mornings in Texas are liable to be just as hot as any summer day; race day temperatures could be anywhere from 50 degrees to 95. I don't want to train inside all summer and then get laid flat by high temperatures. Matt gave me some good advice about setting realistic goals for time/distance. I'm probably not going to see the kinds of gains I want (timewise) as long as the temperatures are rising.
Anyway. One more run in the logbook. The money pot is now at $30. Whoo hoo! To celebrate, I'm enjoying my FAVORITE post-run recovery beverage: chocolate milk. Oh, yeah.
I should also share one of Matt's motivational stories (he couldn't remember the speech from Major Payne, so he gave me this instead):
ReplyDelete"Once upon a time, there was a sweet beautiful wife who became really grumpy when she ran. One day, it was really really hot. She didn't think she would make it, but she kept running. The end."