Holy Heatwave Batman!

So here we are, another April with a week kissing ninety degrees.  Um, what happened to spring?  I'm not a big fan of jumping right into summer, and running yesterday in the humidity showed me that I really appreciate cooler temps for running!  Plus, heat and humidity turn me into a serious grouch, so I prefer to put that off for as long as possible!  (So if you're keeping a list of what makes me grouchy, it's: heat & humidity, lack of sugar, being hungry, getting up early, and vegetables.  I don't like seafood, but it doesn't make me grouchy the way vegetables do.  There's more on the list of course, but that's all I've mentioned in my blogs so far).

Because I had a crazy day planned for yesterday, I actually got up and ran first thing instead of leaving it until the middle of the day like I have been doing lately.  I was also motivated by the knowledge that the day was only going to heat up.  It was only about 54 when I got up at 8, but the humidity was already high enough that I felt like someone was sitting on my chest for about 75% of my run.  Lovely.  

On the plus side though, I didn't get a stitch in my side like on my recent runs.  I suspect not eating before I run (even when I leave an hour or two in between eating and running) makes a difference.  I'm going to try having a blueberry waffle before heading out on my runs this week (I'm always tweaking!), so we'll see what the answer turns out to be.  I'm hoping to get it sorted out before Saturday's 5k!  To say I'm nervous about my double-header 5k weekend would be a huge understatement.  I'm already feeling like throwing up and panicking!  Or panicking and then throwing up.  Gotta dig deep for bravery on this one...

But anyway, back to my run.  Although I had a deliciously lazy off-day on Friday, my body was feeling sore and tired when I got up yesterday morning (might have something to do with the 12 hours of housework, yardwork & errands I did on Friday).  So I set my goal for the day at running 3.4 miles without walking.  I was hoping to get it done in 38 minutes, but I knew if that didn't happen, the main thing was making sure I was always running.  Once I got past the first mile, I had passed my fatigue threshold and was able to settle in to the run nicely.  Other than the trouble I've had breathing while running lately, (which is making me think I should check in with my doctor to see if my asthma is hunting me again, or if my lungs really WERE scarred by the four bouts of pneumonia I've had) the run was great.  I was a bit behind on my time, but only by 25 seconds, so I was satisfied with that.  My legs felt nice and tight by the end of the day, which is my favorite feeling lately - sore muscles always remind me that I've been running and that feels great!

My original plan was to run yesterday and today, because I had it in my head that I wanted to get three runs in before my 5k this weekend.  Silly girl.  But after seeing how tired my body was last week after adding a short run, I decided that I'd plan on a Monday/Wednesday/Saturday schedule (with Saturday's run being the 5k), and I'll look to add in a short run on Thursday or Friday.  With tomorrow again in the eighties, I will definitely be getting up to run first thing.  Which will be awesome, since I got about five minutes of sleep last night - despite running at least three days a week for the past three months and attempting to avoid caffeine in the evenings (all right, so I had a Pepsi with dinner.  It's a weakness.), I've been having bunches and bunches of trouble falling asleep.  Last night, I was tired enough that my eyes were closing as I was reading around midnight, so I snuggled into my cool sheets and squishy pillows and hoped the breeze from my open windows would sweep me off to dreamland.  Unfortunately, along with the breeze, the open windows brought the sounds of my neighbors enjoying the cool evening outside.  And, it's as if the minute the lights go out and I lay my head down, I'm not tired anymore!  The other night it took me three hours to fall asleep.  Last night, it took about two, and it was one of those nights when I was never that deeply asleep.  I kept waking up on and off, couldn't get comfortable temperature or position-wise.  I was also hosting Coach J at my house, who was racing about thirty minutes south of here this morning.  He was up EARLY and despite being unbelievably quiet (as in even with my light sleeping status, I didn't hear him), when he opened the front door at 4:42 (I checked), the alarm beeped in my room to let me know a door was open.  That definitely woke me up!  I fell back asleep for about an hour and eventually gave up my attempts at sleeping at 6:15.  Since the morning sun shines directly on my face, even with the shades down, it was futile.  I really need room darkening shades...

Though I would normally be very grouchy about being up so early on a weekend (as I said, NOT a morning person), the weather was so beautiful and cool at that time, that I decided make the best of it by getting some coffee and siting on the beach to watch the sun rise higher (it was up much earlier than I was!).  I followed that with sitting on my deck in the shade with the paper and my puppy for a couple of hours, which was the perfect way to spend my morning.  I'm sure I'll pay for it tomorrow, but it was a lovely!  

Though I know the details of my off day aren't that exciting for those of you interested in my RUNNING, I know it will all impact how tomorrow's run goes.  Though I'm hoping for the best, I advise preparing for crabbiness.  I am going to try to combat any further insomnia with some yoga, which should also help with the stress of watching my NJ Devils give up three goals in two periods of game six of a seven game series against Carolina in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  We'll see how that goes...

Oh, and as an aside, for anyone wondering how Coach J did in today's sprint triathlon, he came in 11th overall, and 3rd in his age group.  So basically, awesome. When I saw he had a 6:47 mile pace for the run, it made me feel very, very tired.  If I could break ten minutes, I might throw a party.  Good thing I'm not in this to win...