After yesterday's post about how wonderful it is to see how much your body can handle, I had quite the rude awakening. This morning, my morning off, I decided to not set my alarm and wake up naturally because the forecast was predicting a high of 86 for today and (comparably) that's pretty comfy.
I woke up at 8:30 and was out the door running by 9. Everything went well until I actually started running; I hit a brick wall only a few minutes into my run and was never able to regain any comfort.
On the surface, I blame the horrible (and very, very abbreviated: only 1.7 miles) run on my forgetfullness. I usually grab half a banana before a 4-5 mile run and, because I was so worried about sunscreen, eating a snack completely flew out of my mind.
But I think the cause of the suckiness is actually deeper. My eating habits have been terrible lately; either I eat way too much junk or not enough healthy...I have no clue what happened to my happy medium, but I'm guessing the balance disappeared when I had to stop running regularly and I have yet to gain it back since I don't really have a firm running schedule in place yet. Dehydration also takes some of the blame because there is no way I could get cramps as bad as I did just because I forgot to eat half a banana...no way in heck.
So, I learned my lesson. In a runner's world, food and drink are excruciatingly important, especially when the summer weather hits. Things could have been much worse, but thankfully I pushed aside my ego and stopped.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Heat, heat go away. Don't come back another day.
I'm a person that completely loves summer. But when it goes from 60 degrees to 95+ degrees in one day, I am not a happy camper...especially upon discovering that, in fact, our air conditioner is not working (thankfully it's up and running now, knock on wood).
Up until the crazy heat started, my running was going well. I PRed at a pretty difficult 10k that usually kicks by butt and finished strongly in a 7.40 pace. Go me. But yesterday's run, my first in the real summer heat, was brutal.
At 6:45 in the morning, it was already 75 degrees and 82 percent humidity. But I was in the mood for a run so I got dressed and headed out the door, feeling optimistic and still a bit sleepy headed. And while I'm glad I went out for a run, I was completely dragging. My 4 mile run quickly transformed into a 3 mile jog that was difficult for me to just finish. I was sweating like a man, cursing the sun for beating down on me, and wondering I wasn't in bed like any other sane person would be before a long day at work.
When I got back into my non-air conditioned house, it looked as if I had jumped into a pool; that is how sweaty I was. I didn't realize my body could produce that much liquid. But as much as I am complaining about it, and as much as I hated it, runs like that are why I run. Sure, everyone loves a perfect run but it's the runs that make you push yourself that make you realize how amazing the human body is.
Thankfully the temperature should be lowering down to the mid-80s tomorrow and I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow morning's run won't be quite as blistering. It was, however, nice to see that I could take a little heat (pun intended).
Up until the crazy heat started, my running was going well. I PRed at a pretty difficult 10k that usually kicks by butt and finished strongly in a 7.40 pace. Go me. But yesterday's run, my first in the real summer heat, was brutal.
At 6:45 in the morning, it was already 75 degrees and 82 percent humidity. But I was in the mood for a run so I got dressed and headed out the door, feeling optimistic and still a bit sleepy headed. And while I'm glad I went out for a run, I was completely dragging. My 4 mile run quickly transformed into a 3 mile jog that was difficult for me to just finish. I was sweating like a man, cursing the sun for beating down on me, and wondering I wasn't in bed like any other sane person would be before a long day at work.
When I got back into my non-air conditioned house, it looked as if I had jumped into a pool; that is how sweaty I was. I didn't realize my body could produce that much liquid. But as much as I am complaining about it, and as much as I hated it, runs like that are why I run. Sure, everyone loves a perfect run but it's the runs that make you push yourself that make you realize how amazing the human body is.
Thankfully the temperature should be lowering down to the mid-80s tomorrow and I'm crossing my fingers that tomorrow morning's run won't be quite as blistering. It was, however, nice to see that I could take a little heat (pun intended).
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