Sunday, June 21, 2015

Triple celebration after a sweltering start


Today's run (street): 5.4 miles

Today was a triple celebration day: Father's Day, my daughter's birthday and the first day of summer. Since we celebrated Father's Day yesterday, there wasn't much going on related to that. Celebrating summer is a passive thing unless you are a Druid, so today was really about my daughter. Except for the kids spending time in the pool midday, most of our celebrating happened indoors or out at places. A good idea considering the August-like humidity.

Loopy
The day did not start in a promising way. The torrential rains and heavy thunderstorms predicted by the weather services turned out to be less intense than expected. However, it was enough to discourage the Runsketeers from going out early as we'd planned. My friends switched the run to later in the afternoon, but I couldn't join them due to birthday stuff. I'm truly sorry to miss that, but the 90° heat and 90% humidity would not have been too enjoyable. I'm curious to hear how that went.

I thought I'd be doing today's workout on the treadmill and had considered doing a faux brick (30 min treadmill, 30 minute elliptical) to minimize my treadmill time. By 8:30 AM, the rain stopped and I went outside to run. My plan was to run loops around the neighborhood that would keep me close to home in case the skies opened up again.

Although it was overcast when I started my run, I thought to wear my sunglasses and that turned out to be a good decision. Over the course of my 50+ minute workout, the sun broke through the clouds and made for a sweltering experience. I kept my effort below anaerobic threshold to keep things tolerable. After three 1.2 mile loops, I expanded my route to ensure that I would cover at least five miles. That course turned out more circuitous than expected and I ended up adding another .4 mile to that total.

It was definitely 5 miles the hard way, and though I felt depleted and dehydrated, I was happy that I got out this morning. My motivation before my last three runs was very low, but each time I rebounded during the run. I'm almost as proud of myself for getting myself out there as I am for getting my runs done.

So happy summer, happy birthday and happy Father's Day. With the 13 miles I've covered over the past three days, I think I worked hard enough to justify the birthday cake we'll be having tonight.

6 comments:

  1. Enough with the birthday cake already! TPP and I went out at 3:45pm, 87 degrees. There was some cloud cover & a slight breeze, but it was tough. The best part was the outdoor shower at the halfway mark outside the Jones Beach Theater. I would have been hurting if I hadn't taken advantage of that.

    Lucky 13 for you! Happy triple celebration Father's Day! Happy birthday to Abby!

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    1. It was brutal this morning with low clouds, I can't imagine what it was like with direct sun. Are you or TPP going to post the route so I can see where you went? I'm loving the idea of a mid run shower. Did you go for coffee afterward?

      Ab says thank you! - she had a great day.

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    2. It's on my Map My Run. I don't know how to copy the map. No post-run coffee.

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    3. Loved the selfie. I wish I was there. Was the picture taken before or after? I looked at the route map. Did the ocean help the conditions? According to the map detail, humidity was 49%. But I guess there was no hiding from the sun.

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    4. The picture was taken post-run. Yes, the water helped. Slight breezes on the bridges. There was cloud cover for a lot of the run

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    5. I want to run there on the next cloudy Saturday.

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