Races Like a Girl

We’re havin’ a heat wave…

Tropical heat wave…

But that has not stopped me from running. I ran 44.5 miles last week, just 1.5 miles shy of my goal. That included a 12 miler on Friday evening, 5 on Saturday afternoon, and 8 in the extreme heat of Sunday. Today was hot AND humid, and I managed to do 7 miles.

So I guess I’m getting acclimated. I no longer get the horrible headaches I used to get when I’d run in the heat. The heart rate training is a joke, though. I’m supposed to be at between 68-72% max heart rate for my base building. I’m lucky if I can keep it below 75% in this heat. So I go by pace, since I’d have to be crawling in this weather to keep it at 68%.

I do miss the winter, though. I love to run in the cold. I’m trying to change my attitude about hot weather running — by making a cold shower my reward. But it’s still pretty awful out there.

I’ve been running every day and this has, paradoxically, helped my legs. There seems to be a lot less soreness between runs. Either the shorter run days are serving as recovery days, or my legs are getting stronger. At any rate, they’re getting thinner. I can see actual muscles under the blubber at last. I knew they were in there somewhere.

Filed under: everyday life, training, westchester |