Arie's Running Blog

8:45AM, 70F, 70% humidity. My body only starts to aclimate itself to the new conditions of heat and humidity. I ran this course the slowest I have ran it for quite a long time. I have a 4th of July 5M race. Hopefully my body and mind will adjust for the heat and humidity by then. Otherwise, the 7:00 pace goal will have to be adjusted.

0:37:17

Plan for this week. After 3 weeks of gradual increase in milage I plan to stay a bit lower this week on the weekday runs - nothing beyond 5 miles or so. Then try to have a longer run on Saturday or Sunday. Next week I want to start and increase the milage again and perhaps attempt 6 days a week running. I'm afraid that some of my daily run will be in the gym on the treadmill as over 90F temperatures are predicted this week.

8:40AM, 68F, 75% humidity, cloudy. It wasn't too bad weather wise. I did a better pace (7:44) than yesterday and hopefuly it means my body is starting to adjust. I'm reducing the milage this week by just a bit after 3 weeks of gradual increament and will get back to increased milage next week. I want to keep it at the 30something level untill my 5 mile race on July 4th. With this horrible humidity and heat I probably should downgrade my expectations for that race. Doing the 5 mile race in 36 minutes would be awesome.

0:36:45

I did sleep more last night but part of it I had my 2.5 years old daughter's feet stuck in my ribs. She's so adorable.

Gym, 5M tempo run. When I left home at 9:30 this morning it was already 75F and humid. So I went to the gym and did a 5M tempo run. I avareged 7:13 per mile but the last part of the run was faster than the first and I was actually going at 7:00 per mile for the last mile. I threw in some hills (at slope 1.5) during the run but it was mostly on zero incline. The outdoor courses I usually use are quite hilly, even more than the courses I race on. So a treadmill is not great in that respect either. The highs will be in the upper 90s in the next days and I'm afraid I will use the gym's treadmill more than I would like to.

0:36:27

9:40AM start, 82F, 65% humidity. I think this was my first real summer run for the season. I was very conservative - perhaps a little bit too conservative (8:01 pace). At least it wasn't very humid and there were a few light breezes here and there. The course is about 50% of the time in shade. But, nevertheless, it was hot! I think it was close to 85F when I finished. But I think my body is aclimating very fast. Yesterday I ran in the gym. It wasn't fun. I really hate the treadmill. It always hurt more and in strange places after I run on the treadmill.  Next week I plan to get up really early in the morning and be done with my run before 7AM.

0:38:06

Note to self:  put sunscreen and a hat!!!

Happy event:  My black toe nail finally fell off and a new toe nail emerged beneath it. hoooray!

6:00AM start, 75F, 80% humidity. It's going to be 100F today and still in the 90s in the evening so a very early morning run is the only option. I came out on sun rise and it was already hot and humid. The first mile was hard but I warmed up and the rest was quite nice and smooth (7:49 average pace). The route is a combination of trail and asphalt with lots of hills.

1:05:39

Plan: Next week I'm going to increase the milage and I also want to try a longer run on the weekend. I've been running this 8.4 miles route for 4 weeks and I feel ready for a 10 mile. I also want to do speed work on Wednesday but I'm not sure it's a good idea. In the past those speed works have been very hard. The 5M race is 4 weeks from yesterday. It's going to be my first 5M race so I'm guaranteed a PR :-) but I want to do a good time (36 minutes maybe???).