I believe it was Glenn Frey who said "The Heat Is On".......The Shamrock Warrior said " this feckin humidity is killin' me"........
I'm no stranger to struggling w/ the summer heat and humidity, each year over the past few years I've noticed my tolerance to it becoming less and less, and as each year it feels like the planet continues to heat up which feels like a lose/lose for me, heading into a Fall marathon I knew I would have to face the heat and humidity and hope for the best, by the end of last week if felt like it was a tie two wins each w/ the summer demanding an instant rematch this week......
Monday July 1st Up and at it at 6.10am, seldom one to brake my hand patting myself of the back I am proud of the fact I've been able to get up in the morning and getting out to run either pre work of early on my days off, at 64 degrees it's a reward to get up and out at 6.10am knowing in 12 hours time it'll be 84 degrees and counting
Almost an identical time to Fridays 5 miler, 44.05.2, shaving three seconds off Fridays time my pace was 8.49 mile pace and my splits were: 8.14-9.06-9.01-8.49-8.54
The opening split was a bit brisk which came back to bite me in the rear over the next two miles, I'd like sub 9s if possible getting that opening mile right would go along way to making that happen.
Wednesday July 3rd Deja Vu? 44.05.5 off 8.49 mile pace, my splits were:8.22-9.18-8.49-8.50-8.42, I forget what the exact temperature was but I should have made a note of it because it would prove to be the last comfortable day this week......
Pissed my second mile split ballooned up to 9.18, I probably switched off mentally which at 6.20am is understandable but still frustrating I could've gotten my first sub 44 min 5 miler w/ ease this morning, still the old running adage " there's always next time".............
Friday July 5th I knew at 5.55am it was going to be a hot sticky mess out there, how bad was it? my sleeveless running vest was sticking to my back going down the stairs before I even got out the front door...........
It was already 77 degrees at 6.20am and the air was thick, I got to 43rd and Baltimore which was .82 of a mile in and said "nah....feck this this, not today!!!!" I knew the further out I got the further back I'd be walking in this soup, turned around tacked on another .18 of a mile to round out to a 8.33 mile and called it a day
Sunday July 7th Having paid close attention to the local weather news on Friday when Payton Domschke said " just cut and paste todays conditions, 97 feels like 104 tomorrow" I knew a Saturday run no matter how early was questionable.....
As I've said b4 it's not the heat that's the killer although its bad enough it's the humidity that does me in, now all of a sudden it's not the temperature I'm checking it's the humidity, to that end it felt prudent to push back my 6am start time to 8am because the humidity would be slightly lower.....alas not low enough I knew when I hit Franklin Field at mile two I was in trouble, beads of sweat were bouncing off me like projectiles and by the time I hit the foot of the on/off ramp at South St bridge to access the Schuylkill River trail I was cooked, the 1/4 mile to Locust Point and the 2.5 mile turnaround wasn't an option, not for the first time this summer, nor I fear the last I cut a lonely sad figure doing the stop/start walk/run back home managing another mile to round out a 26.27.2 three miler I was so out of it when I got home I forgot to write down my mile pace.....it wasn't high on my list of priorities at that point trust me.....for the record my splits were:8.21-9.06-9.00 for the record 82 degrees at 8am w/ 69% humidity to use a line from Matthew Broderick in "Biloxi Blues" "man it's hot....Africa hot.....Tarzan couldn't stand this heat"!!!!!
A four day fourteen mile week w/ no " long run" two weeks in a row I've failed to get my 8 mile run in, but frankly in these conditions I'm probably arsehole lucky to be logging any runs, the ten day forecast dosen't look like its about to get any better, but not panic stations yet, seven weeks till Philly 10k, ten weeks till PDR, sixteen weeks till Dublin, still ample time to turn it around and when the heat finally drops so that my evening runs can be 8-10 miles a few times a week then I can begin to bump up my weekend long runs.
Two weeks ago when I resumed training and had a bad first weekend I didn't get too down on myself the following day the heatwave broke and I nailed a six mile run you can't let the lows get you too low, but you also can't allow the highs to get you too high, all things in moderation
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