I went back and forth last night and this morning on whether or not to do my planned tempo run outside. I woke up at 6:00 AM and checked the weather first thing. Just as predicted...
Focus on the humidity (95%) and the dewpoint (72). According to the source above, I should "expect my pace to suffer greatly." Great. I *almost* grabbed my keys and headed over to the dreadmill at the gym, but I noticed that no storms were predicted for the next hour, and I figured, what the heck? Actually, I just really really really hate the dreadmill!
The run started out pretty well. I could feel the soupy air all around me, but I was going at an easy pace for the first mile to warm-up. I upped the pace when mile two began, and instantly felt tired. It is hard to get a good breath in when you are running in such awful conditions. I reminded myself that it was okay if I didn't hit my actual tempo goal pace (8:30-8:40/mile), but was somewhat surprised when I saw that I had averaged 8:33 for mile 2. Mile 3 was oh so much worse. I kept having to talk myself into continuing the run. Felt awful. Told myself that if I wanted to, I could stop after this mile. No surprise the pace was a bit slower (8:41), but when I ran by the spot where I had told myself that I could quit and walk home right at 3.0 miles, I was so very proud! I said to myself, "You can do another half-mile. That is nothing. Then if you feel super-bad still, you can walk home." Of course, the tiny voice in the back of my head said, "Yeah, well if you get to 3.5 miles you will definitely need to get to 4, because it's just silly to stop with a half-mile to go!" So, of course, I listened to that tiny voice and finished out my four miles. My final mile was my fastest yet (8:20), and I had enough in the tank to really push the final 0.2 (which is what I try to do at the end of almost all of my runs, to prepare to finish strong on race day).
By now you all know me and my love for all things numbers. I love how my Garmin has the ability to compare runs. I ran a 4-mile tempo run two weeks ago. Here is the side-by-side comparison between the two runs:
Not too much difference in the overall time. I did better on mile 3 two weeks ago, but I did better on mile 2 this time. I was mentally psyching myself out this time during mile 3, so like I said, I am just glad that I stuck with it!
Notice the beautiful "glow" that I have? ;)
Now, the million-dollar question: how did my legs feel? I won't lie, they felt tired during the run itself. Sore. Shins hurt. But they felt 100 times worse once I stopped running. I immediately iced and rolled my calves and shins, but that didn't help much. Honestly, right now the only thing that feels good is to wear my compression socks. So I am living in them right now. People may look at me weird, but at least I don't have to limp around. I am so glad that I am not running again till Saturday. Danielle (my new running pal) is going on vacation, so I will be by myself. I can't get out till 9:00 AM when my oldest son's caregiver arrives, so I am hoping it's not too hot by then! I am thinking of running along the reservoir. It's so pretty!
This afternoon I did week 6, day 1 of the 100 Push-Up Challenge. Every time I finish a workout with this app, I think that this challenge has thrown the hardest possible workout at me. And every time I pull up the next workout, it doesn't disappoint me. Today's workout: 190(!) push-ups total. 5 sets: 40, 50, 25, 25, 50. YIKES. The first 40 were fine. Then it got hard. Can we say spaghetti arms?! Oh well, I only have two more workouts with this app, and then a final exhaustion test. I imagine I will continue working towards 100 consecutive push-ups, as I think that would be awesome to actually reach that goal.
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