The time of year has arrived. At least in Mississippi it has arrived. Those of us who are training for fall marathons (like me) are trying to find ways to get in the required training runs and beat the heat at the same time.
This may not seem like a big deal to most of you, but trust me, it is a real concern!
Last Wednesday, I began my morning 16 miler at 5:00 am. I thought that was plenty early for 16 miles. I had been gradually pushing my morning runs earlier and earlier into my day.
See, in the winter months, I will wait until 9:00(ish) am before I run. I am a sissy with the cold and give the day a head start so it will be (hopefully) a little bit warmer during the run. Now, I have the opposite problem!
So, Wednesday, 5:00 am rolls around and I bound out the door with a bounce in my step. I didn’t make it a half mile before I had sweat pouring down my face and I was melting! It was a very warm day already and I was paying for not beginning my run earlier.
Seriously! 5:00 am is plenty early to begin a run. Right!?!
Nope. Not early enough.
See, once that sun rises, I’m toast.
We have been having the most beautiful mornings. They sky is orange when the sun peeks above the horizon…just gorgeous! The beautiful sun soon turns ugly. It turns up the heat fast and this ol’ lady can’t handle it for very long. Facts are facts.
Wednesday, I called my 16 miler at mile 13. I was so angry with myself. “You sissy. You only had three measly miles to go!!!” I knew, though, that if I would have tried for those last three miles, things would have been very, very bad.
I was smart when I pulled the plug at 13. I felt sick the rest of the day. Had no energy. Very unlike myself.
#RespectTheWeather
Thursday, I ran a quick one mile to keep that silly running streak alive. That was one tough mile. My feet felt like concrete blocks. I’ve never been so glad to be one with a little one mile run in all my life!
I thought all day Thursday and decided that Friday I would try for that 16 miler again. Trying to decide when to begin the run, I set my alarm for 3:30 am
My alarm went off. I was sooooo out of it! I just hit my phone to shut off the alarm and staggered out of bed. Made a slice of toast and a cup of coffee when from the bedroom I heard my alarm going off again!
Oops! In my “violent” attempt to shut off the alarm, I had only put it on snooze. Haha! I hurried back to the bedroom to shut it off for real before it woke up MFH (My Favorite Husband).
I ate my toast, drank my coffee and got my running stuff on. Next I mixed up 40 oz of my running fuel, Inifit (Good stuff! Google it.) sprayed on bug spray and hit the road.
Backtrack just a little bit:
I was very happy girl Christmas morning! My parents had given me a set of knuckle lights! These things are sweet! I put my hands through the straps and used them to light my way in those early morning hours.
Back to Friday morning:
At 3:30 am it was 76* 90% humidity. I couldn’t believe it!!! I was hoping for nice, cool upper 60’s weather and hear I was still stuck with hot, muggy stuff! The thing in my favor was no sunlight.
My first 6 miles flew by, then the sun started coming up. The higher the sun was, the slower my pace became.
I had set a goal of maintaining a 12:30 pace for this run. A year ago in these same weather conditions, my goal would have been around a 15 min pace, so this was an aggressive goal. I am happy to report that my overall pace for the entire run was a 12:33 pace. BOOM! Practically on the button!!!
The 16 miles took me 3 hours and 20 minutes. A very long time. However, considering during this past winter racing season my pace was almost a 10 min pace, this gives me hope for the next fall/winter racing season!
I see a lot of dark o’clock long runs in my immediate future. I was dead the rest of the day Friday, but the successful run made it worth while. I will be setting my alarm again this next week and we’ll see what we can do!
