Holy Crap it is Hot.

It was such a beautiful weekend out there and I really wanted to be out in it, but a fair skinned girl like me will burn through SPF 8,000 and the truth is, its just a little too hot too soon to go crazy in it.

I sucked it up last night, however... and headed out the door for a run at 7ish when I had hoped things had cooled down a little. Sadly, it was still 89 degrees with 45% relative humidity (another feature I love about my garmin watch... the upload gives me the weather data too). Not as humid as it could be, but this early in the season, its pretty unwelcome just to hang out in, much less go for a run in. I had done 2 runs during the week-- one on Monday, the other on Tuesday. Mondays run was the better of the two, but I also got out there so late, they were both about 2.5 miles a pop.

I am in a weird place with my running right now. My speed is starting to come back to me and my body is just naturally starting to move faster, but my cardio system just isn't in place enough to support it to where I need to be. The result is this come out too hard at the start and then struggle to keep it up over time. I can't seem to find any regulating in it. I come out in the 8s and I end in the 10s and I am struggling to find the middle ground. Maybe its not so bad to do it this way-- little by little my pace is starting to drop... but its not quite the way I imagined doing it.

I went out again tonight. It was even more hot and even more humid. This time it was 91 with 50% humidity. It was like soup. Both days I ran a mere 3.16, which was all I was going to get while trying to avoid the sun of midday. I am all too keenly aware that I need to acclimate to the heat and humidity as quickly as possible, so I knew it was best to just be out there even if it sucked. In the end it was a mixed bag, I suppose. It's funny... all the whining and complaining I did over the winter and having to train through the brutal cold, the sleet, the snow... I think I'd take that over this... over the constant tackiness of a NYC summer.

As I finished my run this evening, it started to rain a little. It was the kind of rain that when it hits the sidewalk kind of steams a little bit. God, it felt incredible. The sun was still out, but yet there was this slight bit of lightning and this heavenly downpour and within 5 minutes it was all gone with no sign on the ground that it had ever rained at all.

And now some few hours later, the lightning and thunder and fierce summer rains are pounding away at the buildings. You've never experienced thunder and lightning until you have experienced it in New York City. It is deafeningly powerful. And Catastrophe is sitting all bunched up in my arms eager to see it all move on. But not me... I think I needed this.

Happy Sunday.

I Don't Know What's Going On With Me

I think a lot of it has to do with work, but I just can't seem to get my training motivation nailed right now. It's weird, really.

I went out for a run yesterday. It took some motivating to get me out the door, but without trying and even really realizing it, I came out way too hard and some 2 miles in, I was running a cool 8:30 pace. I know that while once upon a time I was there, right now I just am not... and while its good to go there in terms of getting my body used to speed again, its not something I am going to be able to sustain for long. Its why speed training gets done in intervals and fartleks. But the thing is, my legs just kept going there and cardiovascularly it was taking a toll. You could see on my heart rate monitor that I am up easily into the top of my threshold levels, so it came as no surprise that at 2.5 miles, I fell apart again and just wanted to walk. My brain was trying to slow me down and just pace in the high 9s and get a nice run out of it, but my body was going to go either full throttle or not at all. The whole thing just became this battle. And the very last thing I felt out of all of it was anything close to a marathoner. So I gotta tell you, the whole thing proved really discouraging.

This afternoon I am going to drag my bike out again. But the truth is, my motivation is really slippery right now. Maybe signing up for some races this summer will help. I don't know.

Lastly, I finally got the cd of professional pics from the marathon. If nothing else, in spite of the foot cramp and sunburn in the making, I looked awfully darn happy to be out there....