A story of going from being a non-runner to planning for a marathon in three years...

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

It's not the heat...



Monday was one of those mornings that starts filled with thunder and rain and the general feeling of UGH about having to get out of bed.

After the rain petered out we were left with reasonable temperatures but severely unreasonable humidity.

Doing some quick Googling I found that runners tend to agree that a dewpoint above 70 can kill your pace. Pretty sure that it was at least in the upper 60s on Monday night, if not 70.

Which basically explains why I felt like death for the first 4 miles of our 5.5 mile run. I was really struggling to hold even a 9:30 pace. Whew. It wasn't until we took a substantial break at the 4 mile mark that I was able to even attempt to pick up any speed. And even then it was still a slog.

But post-run I was glad for the weather. I think many runners have a strange love-hate relationship with summer. I know I do, at least. One on hand, you want the weather to stay nice and cool. Below 60 degrees, please. And overcast. That would be great. On the other hand, you want warm, sunny weather so you can sit outside, go to the pool, and enjoy all the outdoor activities summer has to offer.

So last night after our run when we went to the club president's house for pizza and drinks I was glad for the warm weather that allowed us to hang out on his deck and enjoy the evening.

But during the run? No thank you.

Monday Night OPRC Run by snmnstrz21 at Garmin Connect - Details

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The July/August issue of Running Times has this short blurb in it titled "It's not the heat, nor the humidity..." then the first sentence is "It's the dew point." Then it goes over how awful you feel when running and what your expectations should be, based on the dew point. But yeah, 70 is NOT good. I think I will approach the summer with, if I got out there and did it, that is good enough for me. I'll try to do speedwork and all that, but I think I will just focus on getting the miles in. I feel too frustrated when I don't hit my pace otherwise.

And I totally have that love/hate relationship. I want it to be hot when I go to the river, but cool the rest of the time, unless it's a picnic...
Yeah the storms Monday morning were icky, I give you tons of credit for going out in the humidity, gross!

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