Beating the Heat

These last three days have been extremely warm, both reaching over 90 degrees. Sunday was a new record high. Good thing that was my rest day.

On Monday, I got out and rode my bike in the heat. I did a nice 10 mile ride and paced myself quite well. I finished hard because I didn't go out too fast. Biking has been great and it burns calories. It also doesn't put much stress on my leg. That'll be a key component if I am successful in this comeback attempt.

Today, I ran about 2.5 miles in the near 90 degree weather. The run itself was a bit tough, but the real hard part was the nearly 3 mile walk back afterwards. I was really worn down. At first, I considered a short bike ride this evening too, but the walk following the run was more than enough.

Twice now in the past week, I've run to the stands along the Schuykill which are used to watch crew meets. This was once the turnaround point in my shorter runs. Now I can only make it out there before quitting. Hopefully in a couple weeks, I'll be able to make it back too. It's tough, but you have to start somewhere.

The first run out, a female runner blew by me at boathouse row. It's amazing because I could probably count the number of times that happened during all my past training on one hand. Luckily, I found someone else going just as slow as me that day. I passed them and might've actually went out too hard. I was at least able to finish about 2.5 miles though.

Today, I started off slower. I was able to catch another slower runner. That really helps. Early on, I was going too slow and my knee started acting up a bit. I found that if I actually ran faster it doesn't bother me. It must be the angle I'm hitting on the shorter strides or just the more times I hit the pavement, but my knee really bothered me at slower speeds. I found this to be the case in the past too.

The good thing about my leg is that if it keeps bothering me, I can always switch to more time on the bike or I can do shorter distance runs. I've found in the past that if I build up right, it doesn't bother me. It's when I push too much that my knee becomes a problem.

The heat was really rough today. I need to work on getting out there earlier. I got up, spent some time on the computer and finally got out there to run after 11 AM. Luckily, this heat spell is supposed to end today.

Tomorrow will definitely be another bike ride. I'm not sure yet about Thursday. I'd like to start off running about twice a week and build from there (with 4 bike rides a week). This weekend, I'll be camping at an auto race and hopefully doing some biking there. Since that's the case, I'll likely run on Thursday. It's only the first true week of training, but it feels good to get started and get back into the groove.