Encouraging Thoughts

Middle of August in Florida? No really, this is as bad as it's going to get.

Getting Back Up on That Treadmill

I did the required 4 miles today.

It was not fast.  It was not pretty.  I walked a lot.  Considering that I am probably still not 100% after the heat exhaustion on Monday, I decided that my best bet was to do it on the treadmill where I could stop easily if necessary.

Even though this was not the hardest workout I have ever done, I got through it.  And that is a good first sign.

What can I do next time?  Up the speed by one notch.  Then another.  Then another.  Until I am back at where I want to be for training runs...which just happens to be three notches away, actually.

Next I can reduce the amount of walking I do.  I suspect that I will have to walk a bit anyway or crank up my A/C possibly beyond its capabilities.  I think I would rather just walk a bit.  When I lived at my old place, there was a fitness center and I always had to walk--plus their gym was kept slightly cooler than my house.  This was the same treadmill I used to train for my PR 5k time, so evidently the walking didn't do that much harm.

What felt really great about tonight was that it was the first time in a long time where I felt like I completed what I set out to do.  Now, what I set out to do was not particularly challenging or particularly tough.  But I did it.  And now I can get better.

Something else I noticed tonight: that 'energy drink' that I had during my Monday run when I got heat exhaustion?  It actually contributed basically nothing and had 0% sodium.  This explains a lot.  Time to find a new actual energy drink.

I'm a runner. Therefore, sometimes I do stupid things.

Some might argue that running in and of itself is a stupid thing.  Perhaps.  But apart from that, runners tend to do stupid things.  We try to hard.  We push too hard.  We injure ourselves.  We try to go too hard in the heat.

Guess which one I did this week?

Part of me wasn't wanting to share this with you because I like to think that as a slow and steady runner with 6 years of running under my shoes (5 of which have been in Florida), I have some handle on what one should or should not do in heat.  And I think that in my mind, I know what one should and should not do in heat.  So when I tried to run my long run on Monday, 7 miles, I wanted to anticipate what I thought the problems would be.  Instead, I wound up with the worst case of heat exhaustion that I have had since getting here.

Here's what I did right:

I took a sports drink and even planned to go by a drinking fountain.

I incorporated a walk interval into my run.

I reminded myself that the only way of adapting to heat is to go run in heat.

Here's what I did wrong:

I didn't go early enough.

I haven't been having enough sodium in my food.

And I believe that the final point here was the real problem (my symptoms are closer to 'salt depletion' than 'dehydration'...you can go look those up if you want.  They're kind of nasty).  Because I've been hydrated and my body temperature has been normal.  But I have not felt right since the run.  Normally, I am pretty sensitive to sodium, so I try not to have too much of it.  This time around, though, this precaution may have been the problem.

Today I had half of a bag of cheese curds for lunch.  That should help the sodium levels.

I still feel off and I'm not sure what to do.  I want to get back on the horse and run--I was already having mental blocks about completing runs in heat (hence why what should have been the Sunday run got moved to Monday).  But obviously I don't want this to get worse.  I suspect that this week will have some pool running at some point.  And I'm going to ensure that I only go early morning or in the evening to avoid the sheer evil that is Mr. Florida Sun in August.

I'm kind of annoyed, so I read stories about other runners who have suffered from heat exhaustion today.  One was a person who wanted to adapt to the heat, so she decided to run in the middle of the day on blacktop.  In summer.  In heat.  Not the best plan.  I'm not gloating over this, but it has been useful to remember that I am by no means the only one to do dumb things like this.  In fact, part of being a runner is that probably you sometimes do dumb things.  Besides going out running, of course.

Sudden and acute realization during yesterday's run

It doesn't matter if you wear wicking fabrics in Florida. There is still nowhere for the sweat to go.

Trips down Memory Lane

To make any sense of this post, you need to know that I'm currently in Boston.  Somerville, more precisely.  Right near the Cambridge/Somerville line.

Before I went out this morning, I found myself humming this:

Why?  Because I am staying approximately one block away from where I lived when I first started running back in 2006.  So maybe not 'memory lane' so much as 'memory routes.'

This morning I ran down to the Charles River (YAY!!!!).  I saw the hotel where I stayed the last time I spent time in Boston.  I ran by the boathouse where we used to row from.  I got to enjoy this view.  It's funny: I was really excited to go running and revisit these old places.  Also, I got through my run with no problems, which is always a treat.

It was slightly more hot and humid than I would have liked, but really nothing on Florida.  'Warm' and 'damp' might be a better way to express that.  There was a guy ahead of me near the end who kept having to stop and walk.  This made me feel infinitely better about life, even though that's kind of mean.

Today was Day 1 of the official marathon training plan.  Day 1 complete!  Whoo!  Only 3.5 months to go.  Less whoo.

Beach to Beacon 10k: recap

I had hoped to PR this race.  I came nowhere close to PRing this race.  If there is an anti-PR, I almost did that (it was almost as slow as my very first 10k ever!  Maybe slower.  For real).  However, I had also not anticipated that it would be in the 70s with 80% humidity and 2 miles in the bright Maine sun to start.

I began too fast.  Probably I should have slowed down.  However, running at what I was hoping would be my race pace was so easy at first.  It felt kind of like when I PRed on the half-marathon.  So I suspect that I had it in me to make my goal, except that the situation made it impossible.

Here is where you end:

Even better, you don't need to run up the hill at the end!


The course was great (a little hilly, but not horrible).  The support was great.  There were tons of water stops and even ample portapotties at various points.  The t-shirt is great (real wicking fabric!).  Even the running expo was great (2 shirts and 2 bottoms for $33 total).  The people along the route were great, particularly whoever was playing 'I like to move it' around mile 3.  The only complain was the weather, and obviously no one could do anything about that!

I was asked by two EMTs if I was okay.  That is always my acid test for whether I did my best on hot and humid days.

My one piece of advice: if you are doing this run, park at the South Portland locations if that is viable.  They had by far the shortest line for the shuttle bus and it was really easy to get back on 77.  Definitely the best choice I made all day!

The weather report from Maine

HUMID!

Ah well. I'm still having fun and the race should be beautiful.