Practice To Suffer So Racing Becomes Easy

Morning:  15.81 miles - Since I missed a run yesterday I thought I'd  put in a little longer run today.  I missed the record breaking heat in the afternoon with this run, but toward the end of my run I wished I had some water with me.  Finished the day off working on my camper in the heat.  It was really tough work in the rafters hanging lighting.  The next 2-3 days will be all construction work, so I'm not expecting to run as much mileage as I did last week.  I'm going to just let the body and motivation decide how much is appropriate.

Morning:  4.61 miles - very early morning waking at 4 am to run, but it was the only way to get out the door without Jameson.  Jen had to leave early for work and we didn't have the running stroller with us.  It helped me beat the heat a little, although it was still 80 degrees with 100% humidity.

 Evening:  8 miles - debated on my run about running the Milton Independence Day 10K I wound up deciding I'd let my body decide.  If the run felt good I'd do it, if I was feeling flat I'd skip it.  The run felt great, even though I had been working in 100 degree heat all day on my camper.  I figured the past 3-4 days of work in the high heat was going to be good heat acclimation. 

I decided to do this race around 9pm the night before.  Milton is my childhood hometown and I've run the race about a dozen or so times in my life.  It's always a hot time of the year to race a 10K and this year was no different.  Since I've been running slow and holding high miles with no speed work I figured I'd treat it as a springboard workout back into regular training.  Temps at the start would reach 95 degrees with high humidity and I knew it was going to be a matter of survival out there today.  The high for the day reached 112 another state high temp record.  

I got out to a 5:50 pace 1st mile start, which is all downhill.  On the way down a nice breeze was blowing in my face.  That breeze made the first 3 miles a little more comfortable.  there were about 6 guys in front of me with Zac Bruns way out front.  He ran a 1:10 at the 1/2 champs so, I knew he wasn't going to fade much in the heat.  As for the rest of them, I figured they were all out way too fast for the conditions.  By the time I reached the 2nd mile I passed 3rd place like he was crawling with a 6:04 split (not a good thing for him so early in the race on such a hot day).  I was able to see 2nd place about 20-30 seconds in front of me as I came up the 1st hill.  I was feeling good and I was patiently waiting for 2nd to come back to me.  By the time I hit mile 3 I had closed the gap between me and 2nd place to about 15 seconds.  My split at mile 3 was slightly slower, but mostly uphill with a 6:08.  I started to get dizzy running down the hill, the heat was cooking me!  The course had a water stop at mile 1.5, 2.5, and mile 5.  Since the course was an out and back it allowed me to hit the water stops on the way back as well.  I was using them all, dumping water overhead and drinking down 1 cup.  Right before mile 4 I would pull up along side 2nd place.  The runner clung onto my pace and drafted me for about 1/2 a mile before he would slowly fade.  I came through mile 4 in 6:03, which felt like a little harder effort than the last 3 miles.  The wind was now completely with me for the last 2.1 miles making the race a lot hotter.  First place was no where in sight so I knew I had 2nd locked up unless someone chased me down from behind.  The last 2 miles were really hot.  I managed a 6:12, but as slow as that split was I felt like the race was getting much much harder than I wanted it to be.  Mile 6 was just a matter of finishing without falling over splitting a 6:14, and a jog into the finish area.  Somehow I managed to rip off my tag, but it took all the energy I had to rip it from my bib.  I grabbed some ice and a bunch of water then went to the shade to cool off.  I was a little dizzy, but not Boston dizzy.  I knew I'd pull out of it after cooling down.  About ten minutes later I was walking around talking to old high school coaches and friends.  My official times was way off my best time, but I was really happy with the effort and thought I ran a very smart race.  It was a good hot weather race redemption effort to my Boston disaster.  Slow time, but the right effort today.

 Finished with a very short cool down, although there was nothing cool about it. 

Evening:  10.19 miles after watching Jen's Aquathon.  The aquathon had a food theme.  They run these once a month in the Madison area.  For this one the athletes had to swim an open water mile swim (shot gun a beer along with scarfing down  a slider and a burrito to subtract 90 seconds from your 5K run time) or just run the 5K.  I was surprised to see a large number of people choosing the beer, burger, and burrito!

I ran my run along the lake shore mansions.  The homes were very stunning.  I finished in the dark, but right before sun down a fox came toward me and sat down in the sidewalk.  I moved to the street and for a second it started to follow me!  I've never seen one so tame.  Just before I reached my truck a family of raccoons came trucking out of the weeds in front of me.  They all looked at me and just slowly walked across the road while I waited for them pass.  Wound up getting in late, but I'm glad I didn't run any earlier.  The temps were well above 100 at 9pm - unbelievable!  We set another record high.  The dangerous part about this heat is the high humidity.  We've had heat indexes reaching 115-120 degrees.  We also haven't had a drop of rain since early May!  Looks to be some relief come Friday night though.   

Morning:  5.36 miles out Hwy N.  Unbelievably hot and muggy for 5:30 am.  I've never seen it this hot and muggy in WI for this long.  My pace has gone from 7:30 miles to 8:10 miles.  Not much I can do about it.  I actually feel well acclimated, but it's dangerous weather to run anything other than easy pace for any length of time.

Evening:  13.19 in triple digits on the heat index again.  Although, the humidity wasn't as bad this evening as it was in the morning I seemed to be dragging my feet tonight.  All I could muster was an 8:35 pace.  I was going to go 15, but cut it short due to fatigue.  What a miserable run.  I hit every water fountain I could.  These kind of days are the ones that make me wonder why I do this.  I'm rating this one two thumbs down.  (1)

Morning:  5.85 miles - Another muggy slug it out run.  Just trying to get one foot in front of the other this morning.  These days are either going to break me or make me a piece of iron.