Running in Memorial Day Heat

I went out for a mid-morning run yesterday because we had the day off for Memorial day. I slept in longer than normal because we got home late from a fun light-show at a mansion in New York: Lightscapes! (Pictures at the bottom).

As soon as I walked out the door, I felt a wave of heat… at 10:30 in the morning… and I suddenly dreaded the oncoming summer. I was not built for heat. I’m not sure how long I will last! I ran my tried and true speed intervals, 2 minutes walking or jogging, 30 seconds hard running. Towards the end of the workout, in the fifth and sixth interval, I really noticed my 30 seconds dragging down under race pace. I did a mile in 15:11 and had to head home because I was going to pass out. I got home and just laid down on the floor. My face was on fire! I really want to keep pushing myself but the heat isn’t making it very easy – it wasn’t this hot last summer, was it?

I would say I could save intervals for the treadmill, but there’s no air conditioning in the gym (genius!), so I think I’m going to have to plan my runs for either much earlier or much later in the day.

I’m hoping to get my speed interval miles down into the 14 min/mile range soon. I was hoping my regular miles would be down into the 15-16 min/mile range but they’re still up in the 17 min/mile range, and I flop back and forth between being ok with that and not being ok with that. Sometimes I feel so unhappy with my lack of progress that I wonder why I ever became a runner and maybe I should just quit, and then I go back and think, well, I like running, and at least I’m getting out there and doing something. Hmph. Of course, as soon as I post this, I’ll go out for a really great run and I’ll feel dumb for writing this sad trombone post. (Waaaah waaah…..)

I am going to run again tonight, maybe a slower run. I don’t typically go out for more than a half hour on a weekday because there’s so much going on, but maybe I should try to run for longer.

Hey, I finished my crunch challenge – they got a lot easier as the days went on, but I’m not sure how useful they are in the long run. I am about halfway through my squat challenge – today was 105 squats. I split them up into 3 sets of 40, 30, and 35 squats.

and now, Lightscapes: