Summertime training works in mystery; with the humidity and my excessive sweating always working against me, I'm never quite sure how much progress I'm making. When I clock my runs, the variance is huge between mile splits within and across different workouts. In the winter, my trajectory is pretty steady, which gives me some reinforcing encouragement. This summer, there were times where I wondered why I was punishing myself so hard to deal with the hotter days and saturated air. What exactly is the benefit of humidity training, afterall?
I put in my last long run Saturday pre-taper and after I learned our pace, felt a bit disappointed. The run felt so hard - how it could be that we were going so slow? My muscles ached as if I haven't been running all summer. I don't dwell in defeat over Saturday, but when I am reminded of it, I have to shake my head in bewilderment. I just don't understand what it will take for me to succeed against the NC summer.
Oh, the up and down drama of this summer's running performances. Tonight, things were a bit better. I did a 9 mile tempo run and it felt pretty good. The temperatures and humidity were more manageable (75 degrees, 70ish% humidity - can you believe I'm actually happy for these numbers?? I've been in NC too long!) and I was able to maintain a modal time of about 8:30. Sans humidity, I think I could have comfortably held an 8 min pace. That feels good.
Tonight's run:
1. 8:35
2. 8:58
3. 8:32
4. 8:36
5. 8:36
6. 9:07 (slowed down to rehydrate)
7. 8:39
8. 8:26
9. 8:49 (I treated the first 800m as a cool down but then decided to just wrap it up. I really need to stop sprinting to finish my runs!)
All I want on August 24th is to be able to run a sub-4 hour marathon. I hope I can do it.
I put in my last long run Saturday pre-taper and after I learned our pace, felt a bit disappointed. The run felt so hard - how it could be that we were going so slow? My muscles ached as if I haven't been running all summer. I don't dwell in defeat over Saturday, but when I am reminded of it, I have to shake my head in bewilderment. I just don't understand what it will take for me to succeed against the NC summer.
Oh, the up and down drama of this summer's running performances. Tonight, things were a bit better. I did a 9 mile tempo run and it felt pretty good. The temperatures and humidity were more manageable (75 degrees, 70ish% humidity - can you believe I'm actually happy for these numbers?? I've been in NC too long!) and I was able to maintain a modal time of about 8:30. Sans humidity, I think I could have comfortably held an 8 min pace. That feels good.
Tonight's run:
1. 8:35
2. 8:58
3. 8:32
4. 8:36
5. 8:36
6. 9:07 (slowed down to rehydrate)
7. 8:39
8. 8:26
9. 8:49 (I treated the first 800m as a cool down but then decided to just wrap it up. I really need to stop sprinting to finish my runs!)
All I want on August 24th is to be able to run a sub-4 hour marathon. I hope I can do it.
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