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July 23, 2005
Heat Wave
Did you know that to technically be considered a heat wave it must hit 90 for three consecutive days? So say the meterologists we have around here. That makes me wonder if the same criteria applies in other places. Like, in Minnesota, where it is always much cooler, does it have to hit 90 to be considered a heat wave; or is the criteria relative to the usual climate for a region? I believe that our heat wave has "technically" ended, since the forecast high for the day was only 89. Tomorrow is supposed to be even cooler, at 86! If you ask me, it is still hot.
The humidity was supposed to be lower today, but it seems to burn off after we are done running. The best time of day for the lower humidity around here is 8-10, but then you run into the problem of the heat. You have to pick your poison, our group has decided to deal with the humidity rather than the heat. It was very moist when we got started at 7 this morning. It was not as moist as last Saturday when it actually did rain on us, but it was still wet out.
This week we changed things up some and ran the back roads, or I should say, the hilly roads. This is not to say that going out the front is flat, but leaving from the back is just on killer hills. The whole time we were running I was wondering why I said that I wanted to go the way we did. The group seems to avoid going this way because it is hard. The last time I remembered going out the back was in early January. Other than the hills, I don't like to run on these roads because I get lost easily. All of the roads look the same and I end up all turned around and can not trust my usually decent sense of direction to get back.
This time of year is hard for me besides the weather. The high school boys who run with us all want to be the champ. All of their runs are like races, they don't even talk when they run, they are racing each other. Don't get me wrong, it is wonderful that they have the determination and drive to want to be great, but they do not seem to be having fun and enjoying the camaraderie of the group. In other words, they are just running too fast. The rest of the group tends to run at a pace that feels a little bit awkward to me. Not really slow, but just too slow to really feel comfortable. It actually feels harder to run at their pace than to run at a faster pace. We did try to more or less stay together, so we did stop at the top of lots of the hills. This also made it hard, I may not be the strongest hill runner out there, but I can maintain better than most once we crest the hills.
My plan was to run for 70-75 minutes to slowly get my long run back up to the 16-18 mile range. In the last 20 minutes or so I was so thirsty, but we didn't have any water. Stupid, I know. Usually J or someone will put water out somewhere and tell us what route we are going to run if we want any water. He's on vacation, so nobody took control of doing that. I got back to the parking lot at 67 or 68 minutes and thought about getting my water from the car, but I knew that I would not run the last 5 minutes if I did that, so I kept on going. I ran the back loop around the school and finished up with just over 75 minutes, maybe 10.5 to 11 miles. Although we weren't running as fast as I normally do, we were definitely going at a good pace.
I headed over to the gym and rode the bike for an hour. I stretched some and then lifted. I'm still on my wimpy-light weights since I did not touch a weight for over two weeks. I did do more exercises than usual, not that I felt particularly good, but I just think that my arms are not looking as good as they could. After lunch I did the core strength DVD which is a little cheesy and some sit-ups. To keep the ball rolling, I also did some better stretching. I have really noticed that my groin area is loosening up quite a bit, hopefully that will translate into a longer stride length again.
Returning to the heat wave...it is supposed to be hazy, hot, and humid again next week. The most depressing part about this is that it is only July. The worst weather usually hits us in August. If it stays this way I better get used to it!
Posted by Blondie at July 23, 2005 04:56 PM