The heat and humidity was really back today. In the afternoon, when I chose to run for the first time, it was pushing 90. I struggled to get out the door. I'm so hungry to run right now when it's nice, but I so dread it when it's hot.
I haven't been on pavement all week. It's been since last week that I've done that. I decided to head to Riverview for 7 miles, since that is my go to place. I don't get tired of it.
Since it was hot, I went shirtless. I was soaked by the end. The pace certainly contributed to that. It was supposed to be an easy effort, but it didn't quite go as planned.
I started off very slowly. The legs were kind of like, "oh yeah, pavement...we forgot about that and how it feels." I tried cruising along, hoping the heat wouldn't get to me. I heard some emergency vehicles across the canal. Mile 1 was an 8:51.
Having time off of pavement caused the legs to feel good. They came around as they got used to it. My legs can go much faster than the heat allows. It is my labored breathing in the heat that does me in. Mile 2 was a significantly faster 7:54.
I wanted to at least got to the Forks on the Delaware before turning around. At least I had a lot of shade on this trail. That made a huge difference. Running in the shade wasn't so bad, but out in the open was brutal.
A biker startled me as he went by. I only saw him and one other guy on the trail past Hugh Moore Park. It was lonely in the heat. That made it peaceful and sort of enjoyable. When I got to the Forks on the Delaware, I decided to continue on. I was close to mile 3. I headed on the stone part of the trail until I hit that point. That mile was a 7:50.
I felt pretty good as I headed back, other than a little hot. I guess since the pace was getting faster, I ended up pushing a little more. I just tried to be solid and focus on the next mile. As I got to the halfway point, my overall pace was 8:06. Now, I just wanted to get under an 8 minute pace.
I guess I was pushing pretty good and really flying. Mile 4 ended up being a 7:27. I made up a lot of ground as I was on my way back. Mile 5 dropped to 7:21. By now, I was under 8 minute pace already I believe.
I thought about going through Hugh Moore Park, but opted instead to run back and just go out a little the other way when I got to my car. I didn't want to go up the Hugh Moore Park hill. The curved hill back toward Riverview was tough enough. I got back to my car around mile 6. That mile was a faster yet 7:14.
My pace had been dropping like crazy and I was pushing fairly hard. Every mile ended up being faster than the one before. So much for going easy. I finished up with a short out and back at Riverview Park. The final mile was a 7:03. I was exhausted.
I had a few hours of rest. Then, after dinner, I headed to the track. It was still hot, but a little better. I just wanted a few solid, faster 400s. I was figuring on 5 of them.
It was crowded with walkers when I got there. They were mostly women. A couple of them were quite cute. It was annoying though, because they often took the inside lanes or even worse switched lanes.
I began with a mile or so warmup. That first mile was a 7:16. I then took off for the first 400. I was cruising along. With about 150 to go, I saw my time was slipping. I picked it up to finish in 1:21.15.
I then did a 400 active recovery. I would've liked to do 200s, but not with this heat. I tried to take it easy and get my breathing down as much as I could. I then started the second repeat. I tried to be solid, but slightly slower this time. Although the first one didn't seem bad, I didn't want to overdo it. I just wanted some repeats out of my comfort zone. The second one was a 1:25.08.
I'm not quite sure why I was off by so much. Maybe because I had to navigate around the walkers a bit. I did have to change lanes. After the recovery, I took off for repeat number 3. I had passed the walkers at the right time, so I now had a free track ahead of me. I pushed fairly hard, but definitely left something in the tank. This one was a 1:21.94
That did take a lot out of me. I recovered as well as I could for the next one, but I figured that it would probably be my last one. It was hot and these were tough. A fourth one would be enough. I was pushing fairly hard on this one, especially toward the end. I had to pass some of the walkers, but it wasn't too bad. I ran another pretty consistent one at 1:21.30. It is amazing that 3 of the 4 repeats were within the same second.
That went much better than the last time I tried to do those in the morning. I was happy too considering the heat and that I had run fairly hard a few hours earlier. I ran a little over a mile to cool down. The final mile was a 6:53.
I was happy with this day. I didn't overdo it with the heat, but I was able to push myself a bit with two workouts. I never go out there and try to kill myself. I'm usually on the conservative side with these workouts. I only try to get out of my comfort zone a little bit. I don't want to push the limit too far and struggle with my next workouts. I'll save that extra little bit for my races.
Tomorrow, I'm not sure what I'm doing. I won't have a lot of time in the afternoon, since I'm going to the Eagles game. I may try to get up in the morning. I'd really like to get 10 miles in. I'm thinking that going to Jacobsburg or trails somewhere, anyway, would be a good idea. I guess I'll find out in the morning.
Afternoon Run 7 miles - 53:41 (7:40 pace)
Track Workout 4 miles - 26:34 (6:39 pace)
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