Yesterday I was feeling
great. I ate well, my legs felt
fresh. I felt tonight would be the night
I could go out and have a time run.
Would I be able to officially break the 40 minute barrier for my 5 mile run?
Living in the desert environment,
from about May 1 until November 1, we receive no rain. It is all sun. It is finally starting to get warm. This weekend was the warmest we have had all
year. I am not usually affected by the
heat. I keep hydrated. I spend a little bit of the afternoon in the
hot sun to get acclimated to it.
Usually, by nightfall,
it starts to cool down and there is a nice breeze. Not last night. It was still into the 90’s when I went
out. As soon as I got out there, I
thought, maybe I should put the watch away and try again another time. But I had
my heart set on it. I started out for
the first mile. I did not take music,
because with the heat, I wanted to pay attention to my body and not artificially
go too fast.
I was flying. When I reached the first street, it was not
even 9 minutes yet on the watch. I was
at a 7:30 or 8:00 min pace. When I got
to the next check point, it was 12:30.
This was a spot, where if I used to make it in 15 minutes, that was
considered a fast run. I then hit the 2
mile mark in about 16:30. The heat was
starting to get to me. I knew I would need to slow down at some point, but I
did not want to. I made it to the turnaround spot in 21:30. This was a new record for me. I thought I should cut it short and only go 4
miles, but my stubborn self, decided to turn around and go for 5 miles.
I slowed down. I was keeping track where the water fountains
would be if I needed to refill. I kept
pouring water on my head and drinking as well.
Once the watch hit 35 minutes, I knew I would not have the record
tonight, so I turned it off and slowed down my pace to keep going.
I was not as disappointed
as I thought. I knew I can do it based
on the first half the run and slowed down so I would not hurt myself. The first half was completed in about 8 min miles
and the second half in 10 min miles.
If I did not have the watch
last night, I would have been ok. I
would have gone a lot slower at the beginning and slowed down during the run. On days like yesterday, the only purpose of
the run is to get out there, not break records.
I also need to start freezing my water bottle when it is half filled. I find this keeps me with cold water
throughout the run.
With the summer heat right
around the corner, I find I may be putting the watch away and will time myself
come fall.
How do you adjust your
running when the weather gets hot?
No comments:
Post a Comment