I Hate the Heat

I was only able to make it out to two runs last week (week of 5/19/08). One was the regular Thursday night group run. I have been pleasantly surprised to see that as the weather has gotten warmer, the number of people has been increasing, to an average of about 10-12 people. This past Thursday was a much smaller group, only about 5 of us. As the Laminator mentioned on his blog, we spent the entire run chatting back and forth, mostly him giving me some very helpful tips (as well as confirmation) of my current treatment. It was great speaking with him and being able to bounce some questions of him. The other three speedsters in the group were well ahead of us to the point that we lost sight of them about a quarter into the run. I didn't really mind at all. Even though the Laminator and I were in the back of the pack, we ended up running 50:33 for the loop - about an 8:25 pace which is really good for me (a bit slow though for the Laminator). Even though I didn't feel like I was going that fast, it is amazing how running with someone else can allow you to go faster than you think.

In order to get my long run in for the week (and to make up for the fact that I only ran one other time during the week), I extended the run to 11 miles instead of 10. Although I started the run at 10:45 in the morning, it was already hot outside, which was not a good sign for me. I hate running in the heat - I tend to overheat very quickly and wear down mentally in high heat and humidity. I am much more of a cool/cold temperature runner. I planned on running my usual West Side route down the West Side highway and back (adding a half mile in each direction). The first half went pretty well, but I realized right away that the West Side had very little shade and it was going to suck out my energy on the way back. I tried to keep up a good pace and stop off at the few water stations to keep myself hydrated. Although I kept up a relatively consistent pace for the first half of the run, I knew that the second half would not be pretty. My split for the first half was 47:39 for 5.5 miles (about an 8:40 pace). I usually run about 8:25-8:30 pace when running my usual 10 mile run. After taking my PowerGel and a three minute rest, I started the second half of the run at about 11:45 or so and it was hot, and I knew that I probably had a struggle ahead of me. As I began my run back north up the West Side highway, I was desperate for some shade and found myself weaving back and forth to try and catch any sliver of road out of reach from the sun. Mentally I was in trouble. The sun was beating down, I was stopping at every water fountain, and I was well aware that I had another half hour or so still to go before the end of the run (this was feeling eerily familiar to my Nike Half 2007). I took a few walking breaks along the way (running up the hill back into Riverside Park and along the side streets on the way to CP), which I usually don't take, and kept on pushing myself any way I could to get back to Engineer's Gate. My time for the second half of the run was 54:15 (9:52 pace). This was the first time in many, many months that I found myself feeling sluggish, and struggling considerably (the heat was a huge factor for me, as usual). Given the weather conditions, I was not unhappy with my overall time of 1:41:55 (9:16 pace), but rather how I paced the run. My first half was about 7 minutes faster than the second (huge gap), in which I struggled considerably on the second half of the run. I went out too fast given the weather conditions and paid for it. Hopefully this is not a sign of the summer heat to come - because I won't be able to take it.