Burning in the Sun

For some strange reason I awoke bright and early on Sunday morning at seven. I was wide awake and I hopped right out of bed. This NEVER happens to me. Was I a smart cookie who popped on her running shoes and headed out in the cool temps to get in my three easy recovery miles? Of course not! Instead of running, I sat on the back porch, drank coffee and finished my book. I didn't decide to go running until nearly NOON!

Brian was heading out for a bike ride and suggested that I could give him a ride home if I was planning on taking a walk or doing any running. I thought this was a good plan so after he left I packed a cooler with a bunch of water and Gatorade and headed to the park. Did I decide to run on the scenic shady section of trail? Of course not! I chose the unshaded, boiling hot black asphalt section that runs alongside the noisy highway. What else would you do on a 90 degree day with high humidity?

To be fair, this wasn't quite as bad as I'm making it sound. The first mile and a quarter I totally walked because I was just warming up and I wanted to walk to a real mile marker. There was also a slight breeze so it didn't feel so bad. Once I got to the mile marker I started to run but I was aware of the high heat and really tried not to push myself -- I was trying to sing along (quietly, I swear) with my iPod so that I wouldn't get too fast for my own good. I ran the next two miles without a whole lot of trouble and took my standard walk/drink breaks. The third running mile was kind of tough but I powered through it with just one extra walk break. I strolled the final mile+ back to the car. This was where I really felt the boiling hot asphalt. Man, it was HOT. I finished my drink on this section of the trail and I didn't think I'd get back to the car without melting.

I grabbed the cooler and quickly ran into a shady spot under a big tree and sucked down as much orange gatorade as I could. Then I finished a whole bottle of water and over the next 40 minutes or so the rest of the gatorade. Brian returned soon after I sat down in the grass and we both hung out drinking and relaxing in the shade. It's really amazing how much different it was in the shade.

My running splits got progressively slower: 11:07, 11:24. 11:48 but they're OK overall. The walking portions were both quite slow but amazingly the return to the car was a little faster than the walk to start the day.

My legs were feeling good and had I done this run in the morning I think I would have felt great.