SuperSweater Extraordinaire

It’s hot. And I don’t mean "hot" in the Paris Hilton I-Like-Your-Shoes kind of way. It’s been 95+ degrees most of the week and it’s not over yet. Despite the heat, I’ve managed to complete all my planned runs this week.

Monday’s easy run was just that – easy. I started out around 5:30 am to beat the heat and quickly found that I’d have to dodge the many dog walkers who also wanted to take care of business before the sun got too high.

Tuesday afternoon’s hill workout wasn’t as miserable as I expected it to be. I’m used to running early in the morning, so the humid 88 degree cloudless sky had the potential to leave me worthless. Fortunately, this SuperSweater prevailed and remembered to take the pace down a little bit so that I could actually finish the workout. Many thanks to Gatorade, my healthy sweat glands, and Secret.

Yesterday afternoon’s track workout was stifling. Running under a cloudless sky when it’s 96 degrees on a newly paved track is a challenge. One of our coaches reminded us before we started to keep the heat in mind: "Yes, it’s a bummer when you find your pace is slowed by the heat and humidity, but come fall, these workouts will feel like a breeze." The only breeze that we got yesterday was from anyone passing us on the track. Most of the time that breeze was also accompanied by quick sprinkle in the form of sweat flying off of that runner and onto those that they were passing. No one ever said that running was a glamorous sport. Yesterday’s track workout was a ladder: 9:00, 7:00, 5:00, 3:00, and finally a 1:00. Most of the time was run at threshold with the remainder of the time at a pace higher than threshold.

My long run this weekend will be a 16-miler. It’ll be the furthest I’ve ever run so far so I’m actually kind of excited. They’re calling for a high of 97 tomorrow so we’re starting at 6:00 am to get in as much of our run as possible before the heat really sets in. After tomorrow’s run I’ll be treating myself to new pair of running shoes and perhaps some new gear (thank you VA Sales Tax Holiday). Then it’s off to Mom and Dad’s in MD for some steamed crabs and beer (and yes, I will rehydrate with some legitimate liquids too).

Hope everyone has a great weekend!