Monday, June 23, 2014

Bemidji Blue Ox Marathon Training Recap Week 1

On Monday, I started off my week with a run. Wahoo. Most of my previous training cycles have given a rest day on Monday, and I've learned that makes me want to take a rest day everyday. Weird. I knocked out 7 super humid miles before I had to work. My legs still don't feel 100% recovered, but pretty close, I think.

Tuesday was a scheduled rest day. And Wednesday I was sick, so it was an unintentional rest day.

Thursday I ran an easy 3 miles after work in insane heat and humidity. I took 12 oz. of water with me, and drank it all in that 31 minutes. #hot

3 miles in the heat acclimation bank!


Ollie was thrilled when I returned home to lay on the couch with her. She's currently working on the couch portion of the couch to 5k.


Friday morning (late morning) I headed out for my 14 miler. I had planned to run at 6am, but that clearly didn't happen. 9:30? 10? Sure why not! It's only going to hit 88 today. (I'm an idiot.) The bike trails were still under water so I took on an old route. And it was awesome to run somewhere new except a) the route was hillier, which I knew and accepted and even thought that'd be good for me (who knows who I am right now) and b) the houses are SO NEW there are no mature trees at all. So I was stuck running 100% in the sun, not a cloud in the sky. I had to stop at mile 4.5 to cool off a bit, tucked under a fence, and I seriously doubted that I'd be able to finish the run. Luckily the next couple of miles were under some shade.

At mile 6.5 I realized that the rest of the route would be without tree cover, and I wanted to cry. I decided to throw in the towel and try again Sunday morning, EARLY MORNING. Just as this thought was forming in my head, some dark and ominous clouds rolled over my head and instantly I was cooled and reinvigorated. I ran to a gas station a mile in the distance and the clerk let me fill my water bottle with ice. On my way in to the gas station, a guy was in his truck and made a comment about the weather. I said I hoped it wasn't going to be anything serious because I still had an hour of running to do. 

When I came out from the gas station with ice cold water in my handheld, and ice chips under my hat (ahhhhh!) the guy was still waiting out there, and let me know he had looked up the radar while I was inside and the storm cell wasn't anything major, just a little rain that he reckoned I would enjoy about now (I was beet red). I thanked him (because I haven't been doing real well anxiety wise with the severe weather, and it was nice to know it was nothing) and went on my merry way.

I enjoyed the clouds for the next two miles, and the three minutes of sprinkles before the sun was back a-blazin'. The final two miles were atrocious pace wise since I had to take walk breaks because my heart rate was alarmingly high. But all in all, it was a pretty darn good 2.5 hours running around town. And I got some impressive tan lines. 


Your hat rains sweat after/during your run, right?? Thought so...


And then I just blatantly skipped my Sunday run when life got in the way. Womp. 

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