Last Week: I Fought the Heat and the Heat Won

44 miles for the week

M – 0 miles, sleep (first day back on the Monday to Thursday work schedule), 73°F at 4AM
Tu – 5¾ average pace 6:44 mpm, back to a warm, humid and windy 75°F at 4AM with the measured “Dow-Minus” two-miles in 12:53 and 13:10 [S-B/Dow]
W – 6 miles, with 4 miles hard on the track (mile splits were 6:24.4, 6:24.1, 6:17.8, and 6:11.8), average 6:33 mpm pace, a windy and humid 76°F at 7PM [B’Wood HS track]
Th – 4¾ miles, recovery run, pace 8:53 mpm, 74°F at 4AM [Dow]
F - 10 miles, fairly hard, pace 7:30 mpm, 86°F at 2PM and very warm, humid, and sunny [SeaC/NTrail-MBT--2x2M-MBT/SeaC]
Sa – 7½ miles, recovery run at 8:43 pace, a humid and windy 83°F at 2PM [SeaC/NTrail-MBT/SeaC]
Su – 10, average pace 7:54 mpm Another windy, warm and humid day, 85°F at 11AM Mostly cloudy, but the sun kept appearing whenever I was out of the shade of the woods. I’d planned on 12½ to 15 miles, but I had to cut it short and slow down because I could sense dehydration and heat exhaustion coming. [SeaC/NTrail-MBT--2M-MBT/SeaC]

I was pretty happy with Tuesday and Wednesday’s tempo runs. Both were run in pretty nasty conditions, with the dewpoint in the low to mid 70s. Tuesday’s “Dow-Minus” was the fastest I’ve ever run in May by 50 seconds and it was run in full early Summer heat and humidity with a fairly strong wind. Wednesday’s four-mile tempo run was much stronger than the one four weeks ago when it was a nice cool 62°F. Even Friday’s run ended up with a decent pace, but I was slowed down a little over the last couple of miles in the sun. But Saturday’s and Sunday’s run came close to death marches. Saturday’s 8:43 pace was anything but an “easy” run. And Sunday’s run was so uncomfortable I knew I had to cut it short.

Saturday, I'll either run the Summer Kick-off 5K or the local Brazosport Hospital 5K/10K. I'd really rather run the Summer Kick-Off run; the Glenns are so nice and they always put on a great event. But I'm not sure I can convince my wife I need to drive 120 miles when the BMH run will go right behind my house. If this heat continues, I'll probably just run the 5K.