Heat and humidity haunt me again

After Thursday's run, I was sore, sore, sore.  Every part of my legs hurt, from my hips, to my knees, to my calves and my quads. The only thing that didn't hurt was my feet!

So I was very glad that yesterday was a recovery day and my intention today was to run as soon as I woke up.  Since I've been having so much trouble sleeping, that ended up being slightly later than I would have liked considering that the temperature for today was to climb to 78 degrees.  I first got up at nine, when it was 66 degrees and cool enough when I let the dog out that I thought I would be okay to go back to sleep a little longer and then head out.  But when I finally left the house, it was 72 degrees, and definitely humid.  I knew I was in for a tough run.

Remembering that heat and humidity always seems to really affect me, I started out slow, aiming for an 11-minute or so pace.  Within a few minutes, I was already overheating - there was almost no breeze, and with no shade, I was running in the direct sun.  I kept telling myself it was only four miles and I could make it.  I was focusing on the thought "This is hard, but it makes me stronger" and that actually kept me going.

As I got closer to the water, there was a slight breeze, which I was so grateful for.  The clouds overhead were floating around, but only seem to shade the road just ahead of where I was, never right over me.  Eventually, I did get to run through some shade patches, so I would take off my hat to let the breeze cool me off a little.  It was too hot to try that in the direct sun, which just seemed to zero in on my dark hair.

I made it to the two-mile marker right at my halfway point time-wise, which I was happy about.  But the second half of the run didn't give me a lot to smile about.  I was so hot, so thirsty, and so tired, I was sure I was going to have to stop to walk.  But I am also really stubborn, and I just wanted to run the full 45 minutes today and not take any walking breaks.  

When I hit 16 minutes left, I started to become a clock-watcher again (even though I know roughly distance-wise how much run I had left).  I kept thinking that if I could make it to ten minutes, I'd be able to finish without taking a walking break.  I was really struggling though, so I tried to focus on my music, think about the big glass of water I was going to have when I got home, anything except how much running was left.  

With five minutes to go, I thought, this is it, I can make it.  I decided at that point that I would stop after 45 minutes, whether I'd made it back to my starting point or not.  Then, there was four minutes left, and it felt like so much time.  I told myself I just needed to get to three minutes.  When I hit that, I told myself I just needed to get to two minutes, and so on.  Finally, with sixty seconds left to go, I told myself to think of the first week I started running, when I only had to run sixty seconds at a time.  I tried to tell myself that a minute was all I had to do and I just about made it.  I don't know when I've ever been so happy to stop and walk!

My body felt okay during the run, but I think I was so focused on how overheated I was that I wasn't thinking about anything else.  As soon as I stopped to walk, I could feel my joints aching again and my muscles tensing up - the muscle soreness I never mind, because it reminds me all day long that I pushed myself, but the joint soreness I could do without.  

I'm considering this a tough, but successful run - I ran 3.86 miles in 45 minutes, which is an 11:34/mile pace.  Slow, but I did run the whole time without stopping, so I've got to consider that a good thing!  Tomorrow, I've got a 35 minute run, and I'm hoping it will be cooler and less humid.  At any rate, I've already gotten in two good runs this week (well, an okay run, and a great run, so they even out) and I think tomorrow's will be a good one too.  We'll see how it goes!