Running Hot

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Typing that post title reminded me suddenly of one of my very favorite movies: Running Scared. It’s a Billy Crystal movie from the 80s, and if you haven’t seen it, rent it some night when you’re looking for something to watch. It’s worth the cost, especially to hear such great lines as, “He fell on a knife. Seven times.” 😀
Thankfully, I’m not running scared these days, but I am running hard and running hot. The weather here in Southeast Michigan has been nasty, but we’re supposed to be getting a cool down sometime tonight. I can only hope! I have this dichotomy going on in my life, where I curse the heat because I’m a runner, but I curse the cold because I’m a pool-owner. Like all women, there is no pleasing me. 😉
Monday morning I got up and ran 4.5 miles when it was just so sticky and humid.
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Anytime the temperature is 70° at 5 AM, it’s going to be nasty.  It was so hard to breathe, because it felt like I was running through a swamp. I managed a sub-11 pace, but just barely.
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Unfortunately, I was short on time, and only just had enough to jump in the pool, dunk myself a couple times, and then come back out.  🙁 I didn’t even walk at lunch on Monday, because I just didn’t want to get all hot and sweaty and then go back in the office.
As bad as it was on Monday, yesterday morning was worse. The temperature was a little higher, but worse than that was the fact that it was a scheduled “pace” run…five whole miles! I can’t remember the last time I ran 5 miles at a 9:50 or better pace.  (Okay, actually, I do know, thanks to the Garmin reporting features: August 7, 2014. But it was 57 degrees and, according to my notes in the Garmin app, “kind of chilly”! Also, I was chasing the garbage truck because I wasn’t sure if we’d put the garbage out, lol! )
I knew the weather was going to be awful when I went to bed Tuesday night, and I went to sleep with the notion that if it was bad when I woke up, I would just run 5 miles, and not worry about my pace.  When I woke up, sure enough, it was as miserable as I expected: 70° with an 88% humidity. Ugh!
When I headed out the door, I was fully prepared to just run easy, but then I found myself going fast as soon as I started. I ended up doing about a 9:50 after about the first quarter mile. I wasn’t dead yet, so I then decided to do the first half of the run at race pace, and the second half at easy pace.  Then I realized I’d have one mile with different paces, and I didn’t want to have to create 1/2 mile splits, so I decided to try for 3 miles at pace and 2 miles easy. That third mile was REALLY hard…breathing was really tough; I felt like I was breathing in a pool with all the moisture in the air. When I finally hit the 3-mile mark, I slowed down, but I was proud of myself for not actually walking.  I did my best to keep it under a 10:30 pace, which felt better, if not great.  Somehow, I managed to keep at a pretty decent pace, and when I was able to finish that mile at a 10:16, I decided to see if I could bust out around a 9:35 for the final mile to maybe get me under 9:50 overall. Cuz, you know, why not? 😉
It turned out to be harder than I expected, and I was consistently at 9:48 until the last quarter mile when I gave it everything I had.
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I was so happy to be done, but I was SO proud of myself when it was over–with as bad as the weather was, I was NOT expecting to pull out a 5-mile race pace run!  I actually treated myself to a full 10 minutes in the pool afterwards, which made me late for work, but I didn’t care. 🙂
This morning, I had an easy 3-miler on tap, and I really did take it easy this time.  I came in at exactly 11 minutes per mile, and with the temperature being 73° when I went out, that was enough, let me tell you. I enjoyed my 10 minutes in the pool for sure.  And in case you wonder what it’s like to be in a pool at 6am, here you go:
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Sorry, it’s dark and blurry, but it’s not very light at 6am these days! Here’s my view.
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I just hold onto the end of my float chair and let it hold me up. It’s really quite relaxing, especially since I play classical music while I’m in there.  Cuz I’m cultured like that. 😉
When I was done, I hopped in the shower, and then I saw that the sunrise was going to be pretty, though not spectacular.  At first I was going to skip it, but then I decided I could take 10 minutes out of my day for some pretty pictures.  And so I did!
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Tomorrow is a break from running, but I’ll be doing some other type of exercise.  As I mentioned Monday, I want to change up my routine, but I’m still trying to decide what to do.  I really do want to keep with the strength training, but I’m thinking about adding in some high intensity training.  My husband is currently doing the Insanity workout right now, and he’s trying to convince me to do it.  I’m not quite sold on it yet, though. It just looks unpleasant! :p We shall see…!
That’s it for now! Have a great day–thanks for reading!

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