Tag Archives: heat

Running in the heat

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All this week I have been trying to get out early to beat the heat. Today was no exception. Unfortunately like several other days this week I didn’t get up early enough to beat it. But I did manage to go ahead an join it! So off I went with a bottle full of water and a couple of sharkies in my pocket.

It was one of those runs where I had no plans and no idea of how far I would go. Despite the heat I quickly decided to do a long one and headed out on one of my longer routes. I made a conscious effort to drink small sips of water at pretty regular intervals. This was the key to a successful run for me. I wasn’t really regulating my speed and heart rate, but I noticed four miles into it that I was keeping my HR pretty low, so I decided to keep at it and not push too much. The strategy worked out really well. I had water constantly throughout the run and even had extra energy to power up and out of the reed campus to make it to my neighborhood. It wasn’t until I stopped at the library to pick up one book that I had on hold and found a total of eight waiting for me that I acknowledged the run was over. I had to run about a tenth of a mile with my armload to reach nine miles and that was all I could muster. But I was satisfied. I’ll wait for double digit miles until I am ready for it (and don’t have the books!)

These hot runs this summer have had me a little concerned. We have had such a long cool spring that I have gotten spoiled. So when the temps finally increased I worried how I would react to them. So far so good. I have been bringing my water with me and taking little sips throughout the run. This really seems to help keep me hydrated. I also have been careful to get enough fluids in after the run too. Add in a good amount of shade on my main routes and I am surviving!

One thing about today’s run that was a bit of a bummer: when I got home I saw a message from my acupuncturist asking where I was. I had totally forgotten the appt. But she was gracious enough to fit me in and we had a really good session. She is concentrating on my foot issues of numbness and pain as well as helping me get rid of a plantar wart. For the plantar wart she is using a technique called maxa that consists of little tiny cones of incense that are burned on the accu points. She is doing them all around the wart as well aas in the center. The heat is supposed to bring the wart to the surface. So far it seems to be working really well and it actually looks better than ever and much better than salicylic acid treatments make it look (like a weird burned out crater.) She also works points on the leg and ankle. I haven’t seen a lot of improvement there, but this is also due to me not doing my foot stretches with a foam roller. I have had the worse blister on my little toe (actually the blister IS my little toe!) and it has been too painful to do much other than go barefoot. I have been running still, but with padding. My running shoes don’t appear to irritate it at all, but my converse sure did! The good news is that my toe is getting close to being back to normal! Phew. I am really curious to see what the accu is able to do for my foot pain and spacticity issues, more to come.

Back to back

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My run today was also warm, but I did manage to get out a bit earlier before the real heat hits, I did the same exact run as yesterday, except today I ran the whole way out of the canyon (yesterday I pooped halfway up) AND I was 3 seconds faster. It amazes me how I can do such similar runs over a 6 mile length. Hopefully the 3 seconds and the hill indicate that I am in slightly better shape today! I doubt it, at least measurably anyway. Looking at the numbers from the two runs I see I climbed 28 more feet today (which would be my hill). Its not that much of a hill obviously, but coming out of the sweat-box that is the canyon environment, it is a beast.

Other numbers of interest, by avg HR yesterday was 160, today 154. My max HR has also 6 beats less. So while it was later in the day yesterday I think it was actually hotter today. Feels good to sweat!

I think I mentioned the new parkour obstacles in the canyon yesterday. Today I took some really good leaps over them. I still chickened out for the dicey one with the big spur. There is no room for wisdom with parkour! Still, I’ll take the wisdom!

Run in the heat

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Since I didn’t manage to go yesterday I promised myself I would today no matter what. Well the morning wore on and I kept finding myself saying, ok after this. Ok after this. And again, ok after this. Pretty soon it was getting into the afternoon and the heat was rising. Well I say heat was rising but it was only getting to about 70, hot for Portland as of late. Tomorrow to the 80s! I’ll believe it when I feel it.

So by 2 I hadn’t eaten lunch and was kicking myself for not running. Then I realized, well a hot run won’t be the best of conditions, but the what the heck. I am going anyway. I wolfed down a clif bar to hold me over, grabbed my seasonally neglected water bottle and ran out the door. The day was just gorgeous but the sweat quickly began to sting my eyes. Wipe it away and keep going, though I. So I did. I decided on doing 6 miles, not fast nor slow. My HR was pretty high throughout, I definitely need to work that back down. I am sure as my fitness level picks up, the old heart rate will drop compared to my efforts.

The water bottle was just what I needed. Over the winter I had forgotten what it takes to keep the hydration level up. Small sips every quarter mile or so really helped. No heat would stop me today! I actually went fairly routinely. I didn’t make it all the way up the hill out of the canyon, but that is nothing new. New features in the canyon, several trees have fallen this winter. The people who maintain the canyon have a fairly hands off approach to managing it and they leave trees that fall (sometimes they get around to cutting out a portion that has fallen over the path). This makes for great parkour obstacles. One of them scared me and I had to climb over it. The path was especially skinny there and there was a huge spur sticking out. Probably a good choice to not leap it!

Seriously, do I do my track workouts at your day care?

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Today I got a little bit of a late start considering how hot it is. But even at noon it was only reasonably warm out. Well at least when I started anyway. By the time I got to the track I was really starting to warm up. There were a number of people at the track including a mother, her three small children and their bikes. Her phone conversations were more important than watching her kids. After dodging cycling kids several times that interrupted my intervals I decided to leave. But not before I barked out “Seriously, do I do my track workouts at your day care?” and called her rude. ahh yeas, vindication.

So I wish I could say I had left because they forced me off the track, but in was more the heat that ended my run early. I still feel it was a quality workout, I certainly feel tired. When I was ding my Straights and Curves I felt pretty good for the most part. The last half mile or so was really tough, but I always felt like I could make it through them with no problem. I probably could have done the final two laps, but I was feeling the effects of the heat to a pretty high extent and decided it would be better if I just headed home. The cooldown, a 2.5 mile run back to my house was pretty hard and I was looking for shade the entire way. I found a little, but not much.

I really need to get up early!