Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!! That's what I was thinking on Monday afternoon when I could barely muster up the strength to run four miles, yes four measly miles! Big problem, BIG PROBLEM. How am I ever going to run 26.2 miles when I suddenly can't even run four?! Ok, calm down, breathe, there must be some kind of reason behind this. I'm not injured, so what could it be? Oh...yeah...it was 88 degrees!! Heat exhaustion clearly got the best of me.
Seattle weather can really be tough on a runner because it varies so often. Last week, although it was raining, it was a comfortable running temperature, which I think my body had adapted to. Therefore, when I went from running in 60 degree weather last week to nearly 90 degree weather this week, I think I shocked my body. I felt like a melting candle forcing myself down the trail. After I had finished that run, I literally felt like I had run a marathon even though I just ran down the street and back. Why didn't anyone who saw me call 911?? (Ok, that's an exaggeration, it wasn't that bad.)
Conclusion: the sun is a fabulous thing that I cannot possibly get enough off...except if I'm training for a marathon in it. The irony: last week I was complaining about the rain, this week I'm complaining about the sun. There's no winning! Or is there?
Since Wednesday was predicted to be another record breaking heat day and also happened to be the day where I was to do my six mile hill run, I had to come up with some kind of solution to beat the heat (other than cheating and running on a treadmill in an air conditioned gym). If I couldn't run four miles on a flat trail in the sun than there's no way in hell I could run six miles up hill in the scorching heat. So what was my solution? Run at 5:00am, yep, that's right, 5 o'clock in the morning. And I thought running in the rain was insane. Ha! Luckily, I am a morning person (even though I still consider 5:00am to be a part of the night), it wasn't overly difficult for me to pull myself out of bed and hit the road running. In fact, it was actually quite surreal. The sun hadn't quite risen yet and the sky was glowing delicate shades of turquoise and pink, and the Seattle air actually smelt fresh. There also weren't many cars on the road, I didn't have to wait at any cross-walks, and it was a perfect 58 degrees out. With these ideal conditions, I just got lost in my thoughts, enjoyed the rarely seen early morning illuminations, and ran my six miler with ease. 5:00am is the perfect time to run, except the fact that it's 5:00am. Although the experience was much more pleasurable than I had anticipated, I probably won't be making 5:00am runs a habit mainly because it's important that I get enough sleep so that I won't burn out. I have sleeping problems to begin with, so I'd imagine that cutting my sleep short on a regular basis can't be a good thing to practice while training. However, getting up and running at 5:00am has proven to me that I am truly dedicated to this sport. I have never before woken up at 5:00am for any other exercise routine, unless you count packing my suitcases to go the Las Vegas as exercise.
Only 14 more weeks until the marathon!
Week Eleven Training
8/17 - Rest day
8/18 - Run 4 miles
8/19 - Run 6 miles on a hilly course
8/20 - Rest day
8/21- Run 5 miles
8/22 - Run 5 miles
8/23 - Long run - 9 miles
Total miles for the week: 29
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