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July 14, 2006
Scorcher
Holy cow is it hot out there. I mean seriously hot. I know anyone from the south would laugh at today's weather in Pittsburgh, maybe even call it moderate, but to me it's a killer!
But I have no room to complain. I ran for 55 minutes and O is running for 2 hours and 30 minutes. Yep, he's got it A LOT worse. :) He's doing his long run for the week as I type because he's unable to do it tomorrow. That's rough. He just stopped by the house for some water and I told him if he can survive a 17 mile run in 86 degree weather (that feels like 92 per weather.com but REALLY feels like 10,092) than he can survive anything come race day. Good mental training you know? :)
My run actually went better than I thought it would. My ability to run in the heat continues to improve. I don't know if it's so much my ability as it is my mindset. I just don't mind it as much anymore. Plus, I know that in most triathlons with the run being at the END of the race, it has been and will continue to be hot while I'm trying to run hard. Best I get used to it now.
Anyway, I ran for 55 minutes total with the first half of the run being (purposely) hilly. At first I was going to run up the hills hard but given the conditions my heart rate was plenty high just running up the hills normally. I therefore just focused on being strong and smooth up the hills. And then for the 2nd half of the run (which was flatter) I focused on maintaining my form and pace, despite the fact that I was getting pretty tired. I find that since I only run 2 or 3 days a week now it's a lot easier for me to focus on what I'm doing and make each run count for something.
Regardless, I survived. And I wasn't running as slowly as I thought. I timed one lap on the high school track (where I stopped to get a drink of water) at 7:40 pace. I know I wasn't running that pace the whole time, but I would believe I averaged around 7:50-8 minute pace.
Tomorrow is a big brick (big for me anyway) - 2:20 bike followed by 15 min run. The tough part about it is I have to work tomorrow so I'll be doing this at about 3 pm by myself. What was that I said about good mental training? :)
I hope everyone has a great start to their weekends!
Posted by beth at July 14, 2006 6:18 PM