Heat relief... FINALLY!

I've been a bad runner!  But to my defense, it has been brutally hot here in the lower mitten!  Record breaking temperatures nearing (or over) 100 degrees.  Overnight it would cool down to the mid 80s. I was supposed to run twice in the last 4 days, and set the alarm, but when the time came, it was just too damned hot out. I did get out and walk on Thursday, and went along at an okay pace, but didn't put it in my running log, and (obviously) didn't write about it here (until just now).

This morning it was 70 degrees when I went out and 73 when I got back home, an hour later.  Not too bad!  My pace was slower than I would have liked, but not bad.  I've certainly been a whole lot slower!  We had a lovely thunderstorm in the night (I love thunderstorms, especially at night) that ended just 2 hours before I got up to run, so it was quite humid out, making my breathing a little harder than normal.  I ran all over our neighborhood, covering few places twice, and hitting every street, but one.  First time I've done that route.  Decided not to hit the gravel roads after the rain... I don't want my running shoes to get all dirty!

Before I run I usually have a class of water and about 8 oz. of coffee to give me my initial boost.  Sometimes, I also have a Fiber One bar for a little bit of carb energy.  Today we didn't have any bars in the pantry, so I had an oatmeal, chocolate chip, walnut cookie instead.  Probably not the best pre-run snack, but it tasted good!  Sometimes, when I'm doing a race and don't have any coffee, I'll drink a 5 Hour Energy, but don't like them very well.  I don't really like any of the pseudo-carbonated soda-pop-like energy drinks, especially not before running. I have a neighbor who loves him some Monster!  Enough to put ELEVEN stickers on his car that I can see from one side!  Seriously... there are 11 of them!  If you don't believe me, you can count them yourself!  Now, I'm all for showing support for the brands that you're loyal to, but I think this is just a little extreme.


Close to the end of my run I got to see Charlie and he loudly encouraged me to go, go, go!  He's quite the cheerleader and I did, indeed, speed up a little when he said that I should.  I barely had a chance to say hello to his person!

Next run is Tuesday morning. I think it's supposed to stay a little cooler this week (cooler being upper 80s?) so I'm hoping for comfortable mornings for running.  Rock 'n' Roll Chicago is 2 weeks from today and I want to do well there but my Mackinaw Bridge Run is in less than 3 months and I'm not at the pace I need to be for that.  I may need to be more aggressive with my training (meaning not be such a wimp about the heat and get my butt out there, anyway!)  The half marathon is just 2 weeks later, so the clock is ticking!

I’m the fast girl your mother warned you about!

Um… NOT!  I started the next week of C25K this morning and felt amazing!  Amazingly SLOW, that is!  I went to bed early and got a solid 6 hours of sleep, but when I got up to run I felt sluggish and really wanted to stay in bed.  I figured that my little burst of activity would ignite my energy fire, but when I got back home, I still just wanted to crawl under the covers and go back to sleep.  I’m thinking that this may just mean that I require more than 6 hours of sleep each night, although going back to work, after a great  weekend, can be quite the energy zapper, so that might be part of it, as well.  To boost my energy for the rest of the day I got a triple espresso on the way to work and am getting ready to go get my 2^nd cup of office coffee (which tastes watery after my espresso), and I have a 5-Hour Energy for this afternoon.  If my heart explodes this noon when I am taking a walk with my co-workers, please don’t blame the guy at the coffee shop for not cutting me off after a couple of shots. Blaming my employer, with the watery coffee would be much more lucrative.

Finally figured out how to use my Nike+ in combination with my C25K app, which confirmed my lack of speed - in case I wasn’t already quite aware of it.  Despite my slowness, I really did feel good about this morning’s “run” and enjoyed my selection of music, which included The Dollyrots, The Knack (Jack Kevorkian’s attorney, Geoffrey Fieger’s, brother was the front man of that band – who’d-a thunk? ), Sammy Hagar (going to see him in a couple of months), Joan Jett, and several others that I can’t remember without looking at my iPod.  The highlight may have been about halfway through today’s program when Eye of the Tiger played.  That inspiring music, written at the request of Sylvester Stallone for Rocky III might have made me run ahead, arms victoriously in the air, if I hadn’t been lamenting the flight of stairs that I was climbing in my mind.  I concluded I don’t even like climbing imaginary stairs.

All said, I’m looking forward to Thursday run, and having more energy (and not having to run up any stairs – even imaginary ones)!

C25K2-1 run environment:

55 degrees at 5:45 am, with a light breeze