Beating the Heat and Another Lesson in Trust

6 mile run, 25 mile bike
The past few weeks have not been normal training weeks. For one thing, I've had a race every other weekend over the course of six weeks. This means that I'm doing some sort of tapering every other week. The second thing is that I was trying to take it easy in an attempt to heal my hamstring. What this has boiled down to is not a lot of intense training. And not a lot of training at lunch time in the heat. It's only just recently started getting really hot, so my last noontime workouts were in much cooler temperatures. In fact, the last run I did from work, it was pouring rain and cold. I actually wore tights! So I wasn't quite sure what to expect heading out for a run today at lunch when the temperatures were maybe around 80.

I had a 6 mile run, with 2 x 1 miles followed by 1 x .5 miles in Z4 with several minutes of walking in between. My Z4 intervals never start off well. I take off way to hard and am ready to die about halfway through. The ones following always go so much better. I've been trying to pay more attention to this and start off slower and gradually move up through the zones. This worked really well during that last run in the rain. It didn't work so well today. Because of the heat, my HR was higher in general and jumped upwards at a much faster rate. I did not factor this into my equation of starting off slow.

The first quarter mile was on the road and the heat from the asphalt was just destroying me. I felt dead before I had hardly gotten started. I then was able to get on the trail, where there is some shade and it's a bit cooler. Not much, but a bit. If you're lucky, you can run by a dog that's just coming out of the creek and hope they shake water all over you. I'm serious. Anyhow, my HR was moving up pretty quickly and I tried to slow myself down a little, but it was useless. The heat was in control. The last .15 miles seemed to take forever and oh how I couldn't wait for that 3 minute walk break. Lap time: 7:29

During the walk, I tried to calm myself back down into Z2. I tried not to think about the fact that I still had 1.5 miles left of this. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to do the whole set. But then I reminded myself that the first one is always the hardest and usually the worst timewise. I also told myself that it's slightly downhill on the way back. I swear the 3 minutes went by faster than the last .15 miles and it was time for me to take off again. This time I knew I had to start slower. And in fact, it seemed like my body wouldn't really let me go much faster. I was in Z4 and I just told myself that it is what it is and I'll just have to accept the fact that I'm going slower. I'm supposed to be doing a particular interval, which is to run a mile in Z4. The workout is not to go as hard as I can in the hopes of getting the best ever split time. I find that I often have this particular thought during the second interval. Why it can't come to be during the first interval when I need it most is beyond me. This second mile, though feeling slower, also felt a lot more consistent. I didn't feel like I was going to die every few feet. I was breathing pretty hard and the last .15 miles were still a little bit of a struggle, overall it was so much better than the first. Another 3 minute walk break. Whew. Lap time: 7:10 (!)

During this second break, I was really starting to feel the effects of the heat. I felt like heat was just radiating off of me. I had water with me and dumped some over my head for immediate, though short lived, relief. Only half mile to go. But this one was all on asphalt. Yuck. Time was up and it was time to run again. I'm not sure if it's because at one point I had put the thought into my head that I probably wasn't going to make it through the entire set, but this last half mile, I really didn't feel like I was giving it my full effort. It felt kind of half-assed, even though I was in Z4. As a result, it felt slightly easier than the last one since I had pretty much convinced myself that I was really in Z3. And then it was over. Lap time: 3:29 (that's a 6:59 pace!)

I had to slow down to a near walk in order to get back down to Z2 and then Z1 for my cool-down. But I had made it through the complete set and had survived the heat without much ill effect.

I am so amazed with the split times. It just goes to show you how mental this stuff can be. I have proven to myself time and time again that sometimes I need to focus less on things. When I relax and forget about time goals, I do so much better. Yet I still can't seem apply this lesson easily. I still go out too hard. I still convince myself that I'm not going the pace that I think I should be going. I need to let go of my expectations and just trust myself. If only it was that easy...