I can picture it now: walking up to the starting line of my first half marathon. The crowd is loud and cheerful, and a certain energy fills the streets. The runners are warming up and talking to one another as hints of nervous laughter are scattered throughout. The leaves on the trees are a rich rusty orange. They gently pull away from the branches with each blow of the brisk wind. The grass is wet with the cool morning dew of autumn. The air is crisp and as I slowly and deeply breathe it in to calm my own nerves. It is October in Detroit. October… OCTOBER! But right now, it’s the freakin’ end of July and it’s hot, humid and no fun!
I was sweating before I even walked out of the door for my run today. I found myself breaking one of my own rules and resorted to using the uneven and occasionally blocked sidewalks for the somewhat cool shade of the trees.
For those not familiar with running in the heat and humidity (I’m pretty new to it myself), it causes your body to work much harder which, in turn, slows you down and makes your running less efficient. You can pretty much plan on not being at your peak when running in this weather. That was my issue today.
Today was my first Fartlek (Swedish for “speed play”) run ever. Fartlek running is just that; essentially a varying speed workout. For example, you could say “I’m going to sprint to that power pole and after I get there, I’ll lower my speed to a slower and slightly more tolerable speed.” The reason for doing this is it teaches your body how to pick up the pace during certain points in a race as well as powering up those dreaded hills.
So, my 4 miler today was more of a structured Fartlek run. It consisted of the essential 1 mile warm up at a steady, easy pace, 2 miles alternating a hard and modern effort workout and then ending with a 1 mile cool down. The heat proved this to be much more difficult than I had predicted.
My first 3 minute burst of high intensity quickly turned into moderate and my the following 2 minute moderate intensity run turned my original warm up speed. I did a lot of compromising which I normally don’t do in my runs, but safety takes precedence. I do myself no favors if I fatigue so much that I injure myself. The hit to my training would be far worse if I suffered from heat exhaustion or weakened my form so much that I caused a knee or an ankle injury.
I would like to start training in the morning during August so I can beat the heat, but as a 12 hour night shifter, I’m usually lacking the energy by the time I get home at 7:30am. I have a membership to Snap Fitness, but even running outside in the heat is better than running on the dreadmill. I may just have to suck it up and run at the gym for the time being.
Overall, today wasn’t awful. Yeah, it was hot. Yeah, I was a bit of a baby. Yeah, it wasn’t very pretty, but I did the 4 miles and that’s what counts. Sometimes you go out for a walk or run with great expectations and end up not performing as well as you’d like. It’s hard not to get down on yourself sometimes. You put time, energy, and preparation into that run, and you can feel like it was a waste of time. Au contraire, fellow readers. “Pennies in a jar”. I’m not sure who coined the term, but I’ve heard it mentioned by the host of the “Run Buzz” podcast, Steve Carmichael. He explains it as runs, no matter how small you think they are, are like pennies. If you put those pennies in a jar, after a while they add up to something much bigger. In the big picture, your runs turn into something much more than you ever thought and that, kids, is why there is no such thing as a bad run..
So keep pushing yourself, but be mindful of the heat and never over exert yourself. If you need to walk or slow down, do so. If you’d rather put in your miles on a treadmill, do that. Make sure you’re plenty hydrated and on days like this, bring water with you. When the water bottle is close to empty, you should be done. Most importantly though, have fun!
30 and a Half 