Pushing the Boundaries of Stupidity

Unpleasantness.  Trying to put a semi-constructive spin on the feeling of running in upper 90s weather.  Clearly, I’ve gone off the deep end here on this running business.  Forget forecasts, with actual temps reaching 101 degrees Tuesday afternoon, I never really considered not attending our team interval session.  Admittedly, when I ventured out around lunchtime and the sun was absolutely blazing, I thought it could be a rough night.  Fortunately, later in the afternoon we received a respite as cloud cover provided much needed protection.  Also, with the temperature so high, it burns off any humidity … glad for that (small victories).

So at the appointed hour, I gathered my belongings and bearings and trudged thru midtown with backpack in tow.  I’m running more at night lately which means I tend to change and leave clothes at the office.  This arrangement is fine except when most of my wardrobe can be found hung up or in gym bags around our office.  Therefore, I picked up a cheapo backpack.  Filled with a 2^nd running shirt, towel, 32 oz Powerade Zero, Lunar Racers, etc. the backpack added a solid 5-8lbs.  Nonetheless, I slogged down 1^st Avenue (next to the East River) from the 50’s to 6^th Street which provided a solid 3 mile warm up (although in 98 degree weather, you don’t need a warm up).  I did stop to rehydrate a bit (and to reduce the weight of those 32 oz of liquid in the backpack).

Let’s be honest.  It was stupid to run at all in that weather.  I know it.  You know it, but I did it anyway. But it gets better.  While our Coach does like to see use suffer occasionally, he cautioned us about reducing the intensity, taking longer breaks if needed and rehydrating in the midst of the workout.  Thankfully, he did reduce the workload (to an extent).  On tap: classic pyramid – 800, 600, 400, 200, then do it again.  If I recall the 800 and 600 were to be done at 5k pace, 400 at 3k pace and 200 at mile pace.  The recoveries were brutally short … 200m between each interval with 400 between the 2 sets.  If there was a week to drop back to my homies in my old track group, this was it. However, that would not feel right, no matter how awesome they are and unpleasant the conditions were.  So I sidled up to the back of the C group and experienced a brief moment of hope when I heard one of the women shout “84 or 85” in response to “What pace are we going at?”  I could handle that … I think.  The results:

Yeah, that 2^nd 800 just did not happen.  I made it thru 200 of that 800 and said, “Not working. Regroup.”  Bodies were strewn all over the track too.  I saw folks dropping like flies.  It was a rough night.  I made the right move in bagging the 800 because I finished quicker in each of the last 3 intervals.  The 400s were 2-4 seconds slower than last week, but the conditions were very different.  I’m encouraged by a couple of things … (1) I hung with the C group on each of the intervals except the 800 and the final 200 (I was slow to recover on the 200 so they were a good 40m ahead when I started); (2) on the majority of the intervals, I wasn’t last; and (3) I’m starting to get use to the pain even after 2 weeks.  Aside from those nuggets, the downside would be (1) I lost 6 lbs from the start of the day and (2) I will pay for that exertion for the rest of the week.  All in ~7 miles.  Point 2 leads me to …

… this morning’s recovery run.  To avoid running in the high 90s again (after work), I decided to jump up and stretch out the legs early (high 80s).  Not a lot of description needed here.  You can imagine how it felt … it was a slog and then some.  Somehow I dragged my body for 5 miles at 9:25.

Back to the weight loss, don’t be concerned.  At no point last night or this morning did I stop sweating, which means my body still had some (albeit depleted) water reserves.  I literally drank well over 100 oz. of Powerade Zero and water from immediately after the track workout until I went to bed.  No headaches and no immediate damage apparent.  Suffice it to say that until the Thursday night tempo, I am not engaging in so much as a fast walk.

As the Kenyans say, “Train hard, win easy.”