Three Things: Embrace the Heat

This summer, and specifically during the marathon training cycle, I've decided to focus on three areas to improve upon. I think I've done a really good job of physically preparing myself for marathon training--putting in quality, consistent miles for the last two years. Surely I'll spend the summer and early fall doing the same, including more marathon specific runs, long runs, and workouts, but I'm also excited to work to improve in a few other areas.

Learn to better tolerate the heat. If you know me, you know I don't do well in the heat. I'm a sweaty sweater. I blame my mother and father for passing on their ability to sweat buckets to me. Thanks parents. I've always been someone who's very warm all the time. Growing up, we were really poor and didn't have air conditioning. My bedroom was always upstairs, and I basically spent every summer of my adolescence with heat rash all over my chest and stomach because of the heat and my body's inability to handle it. Uff da. I've always been the sweatiest kid on the basketball court, the runner who could wring out their hair/bra/tank/socks after a humid run.

In the past I've worked to avoid the heat. Waking up at ungodly hours to run in the coolest temps of the day, switching around workouts to have the most optimal conditions for workouts and long runs, planning my racing schedule around the seasons, but this summer I'm going to switch things up a bit. This goal, is in part put in place because Grandma's half is just around the corner. And if the past two weeks are any indication, it could be hot as hades out there. We're spending a decent amount of money to run the race, stay in Duluth, drive all the way out there, etc. and I don't want to waste all that money on a day that I say "I'm not even going to try, it's too hot!" (In the event that it's black flags or close to, please give me permission to say this! I won't not run, but I definitely will be keeping it easy effort if necessary for safety!)

I plan to spend some time in the early mornings running when the humidity is at its worst (my kryptonite, really). I also plan to spend some after work runs, probably easier paced runs, running in the heat. The best way to get better at something is to do it, right? I'm also going to practice focusing on effort during these hotter and more humid runs vs. looking at my Garmin for how things are going. During our track work last week in 80+ degrees, my repeats at 3k-5k pace were not at 3k-5k pace, but the effort I was running was as if I was racing a 5k on an 80+ degree night.

I'm also trying to spend more time outside during the day, taking lunch breaks outside (in the shade to save my poor skin) and limiting my air conditioning in the car. What's a little sweat right? It's summer! Rest assured I'll still have the air blaring when I sleep at night because no adult needs a full front side of heat rash. Barf. I'm also working on eating more cooling foods to help reduce internal inflammation so my perception of heat is different. TBD how that works out!

This is already probably too long for most people to read so stayed tuned for #2 and #3!

Maintenance Training Week 4

Week of June 12-18

Monday: Monday night I went to the June 5k series even though I did not want to run, I wanted to go home and eat ice cream directly out of the carton. I did a two mile warm up followed by a short 5k (3.01 miles).

Tuesday: Tuesday morning I taught a 30 minute yin yoga class, and ran two miles after. It was so hot and humid my recovery run took a year to finish. So much walking in the walk/run that it could be considered walking with a dash of running throw in.



Ollie and I did some core work together after.

Wednesday: I wanted to run some extra miles before the group run on Wednesday, but my stomach had other ideas. I waited it out and managed to get in 3 miles with Molly who was in town to visit from FL! And a full house for yoga after.

Thursday: I made my way out to Good Earth after work. I was so thankful that Sally was there to go to the less insane loop of the trail to get in some miles together. It was so muggy. Uff.

Friday: 60 minutes of POWER at Sanford to start the day at 5:30am. Followed by my first "long" run since Brookings. I was hoping for 6-8 miles, but with the trillion percent humidity I opted for six. My legs felt pretty tired from lifting, and I drank about 24 oz of water during that hour run.

Saturday: REST. Five days in a row of running, my legs were ready for a break.

Sunday: Recovery run in cooler temps (finally!). Felt effortless and I wanted to run forever, but I had to get to work. Managed to run through the carnival as they were taking down the rides, which was kind of fun to witness.

Total Mileage: 23.26 miles

Heat Training

Leading up to my half marathon in San Antonio, TX, the Alamo 13.1 I spent a lot of time keeping tabs on the forecast. This is not atypical of my race day countdown, but in signing up for the race, I strongly suspected that race day would be much warmer than what I had been training in. But I wasn't race-racing it, so it wasn't *too* big of a deal.

A couple of years ago, I vowed to no longer run spring marathons. Our winters are so cold and so brutal, that the bulk of our training is done in below freezing temps. Outside of a random week and a half of beautiful temperatures mid-February, I can say that almost all of my runs have been in negative temps to 20 degrees.

I know my body fairly well and have a pretty good understanding of how my body performs best, and what conditions cause me to struggle. I am NOT a warm weather runner. My heart rate shoots through the roof, I sweat uncontrollably (causing the aforementioned heart rate to sky rocket as it works over time to cool me from the soul crushing temps). I sweat so much that I have to be mindful of taking salt replacement pills so that I don't get sick and queasy when attempting to replace the fluids lost. A warm/hot long run will typically cause me to lose around 4 pounds, and that's with drinking a ton of fluids throughout the run.

So back to the marathon. I know that it takes me a couple of months to acclimate to warm weather, so it doesn't make any sense to train from January to May for a race that will always be warmer than the temps I have trained in. Even if the day is cool at 50 or 55 degrees, it's still twice as warm as what my body is used to doing. Barf.

On the flipside, our summers can be brutal here! (Sidenote: Why again do I live here??) They're nothing like you folks in the south, but it's not atypical for us to have 100% humidity almost the entire summer, and certainly in the morning when you're apt to get out and get in your runs and long runs. In the past, I've looked at the forecast, and pin-pointed the "nicest" pocket of weather for the weekend to get my long run in. I don't want to be miserable, so why make a long run more miserable, right?

All of this summer and warm training is great preparation for a fall marathon, because it's almost guaranteed that you'll get a cooler day on race day in the fall than the culmination of your summer training (save for that one brutal Chicago Marathon, 2011? barf...). Which is why you'll only find me sweating through 16-20 mile long runs in the summer for a fall 26.2.

Last summer, something switched in me. I think part of it was my mom's declining health and needing a physical outlet. We had a couple of weeks of brutal heat and humidity, crazy heat indexes and warnings not to be outside. You should've seen me be crazy pug mom making sure Ollie didn't suffocate during her potty breaks! (Flat-faced pups are prone to overheat or suffocate in super hot and humid temps!)

It was too hot to exist, let alone exist outdoors. But when it was too hot to run outside, I would download a couple of good podcasts, grab a water bottle, and go on a massive walk around town. By massive I mean 5.5 miles, because that's essentially the perimeter of my town. Ha. Once the major heat wave passed, I found that I was better able to run in the heat.

So that's the plan over here once it starts to warm up again. I'll continue to do my speedwork during a comfortable time of day, and probably most of my long runs too, but trying to make a point to runner some of the other more general aerobic or recovery runs in the heat of the day might give a nice advantage on race day, or at the very least, not make me wilt and die if my fall goal races happen to have a heat wave come through!