Monday, July 8, 2013

#TrainingTruths: Body on Fire

It feels good to not be training for something specific right now, especially since the summer heat and humidity is making it feel miserable. But I know it won't be long before I need to focus on getting ready for my fall half marathons: ZOOMA Cape Cod and BAA Half in Boston. For now I am happy spending the first part of summer just enjoying my runs and adventures as they come.

To kickoff summer vacation, the month of July, and the Sweaty Challenge, on Monday I took my Wave Sayonaras for another short run. Even out the door before 7:30, it was a sweat-fest. Afterwards I completed day 1 of a 30 day ab challenge that I am determined to complete along with another yoga-a-day pose challenge on Instagram.


Even though the humidity dropped some on Wednesday, we still elected to run on the city trails to ensure more shade. It was a much easier 4 miles, but that didn't stop us from cooling off with some fruit smoothies after.


Last year I ran the Manchester 5K with my friend Daisy and mr. C, and scored a crazy PR. This year mr. C and I decided to be spectators, so Wednesday evening we headed downtown to watch the 3.1 mile race and the Manchester Mile afterwards. If you watch the video, you will see the 3:42.97 finish of the fastest mile on American soil.



We spent Thursday morning at the local 4th of July parade and after sitting in the sun (getting sunburned), we decided to go swimming. Scobie Lake and Beach is only 1.5 miles from the house and we usually run by it, but the hot weather has been making it a more popular choice for swimming workouts.


We were in Newport for Saturday's long run. I picked 6.2 miles so that it could count for the Swagtastic Virtual 10K that I was signed up for. This was by far the toughest, sweatiest run of the week and the summer so far. It was warm, we were sunburned, and it was pretty much all sunshine along the waterfront. Gorgeous, but we were miserable.

King's Park Beach - I wanted to jump in at the half way point!

My first official week of summer quickly reminded me that we have to run smart when the heat and humidity start to rise. It's important to pay attention to both the temperature and dew point.


The good news is that my body will eventually acclimate itself to the warm weather and by the fall, I'll be loving the temps at my half marathons.

How do you keep your cool and get your runs in?



21 comments:

  1. I hate the hot, humid summer. I'd much rather be running in 0 degrees in the winter. It helps a little that most of my runs are done in the pre-dawn hours before the sun makes everything too hot. Luckily, the race I'm training for isn't until October, so race day will be much cooler (hopefully). :)

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  2. interesting chart! Id never seen anything about dew points and running before.

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  3. OMG 3:42?! DANG that's fast! Glad y'all had a good weekend - looks like a lot of fun!

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  4. Ohhh..that lake looks so inviting post-run! Lucky you. I think you are exactly right--summer is a great time to not have too many specific races in front of you. Just kick back and enjoy the (enforced) slower pace.

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  5. when i was running, i always went first thing in the morning before it was swealtering. you should start tagging #mezashamiirun on your pictures so you can win a chance to be flown to ny and meet bart yasso! (details on my blog today)

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  6. aaahhh sitting in the sun :)

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  7. What a great week you had. It's nice to run and train without a goal in mind. There's a lot more variability, and you feel a lot less pressure. How cool that you got to see that mile!! How crazy!

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  8. It would be very hard to bypass jumping in the lake mid run. It's been so hot and humid. And now it's raining and in the 60s. What the????

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  9. That chart is so so true for me! :) Thanks for sharing that. I am also happy not to really be training for anything right now. I can't take the summer hot run pace stress!


    That video is so exciting!!!!

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  10. It was super exciting to watch!

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  11. Such bizarre weather...I can handle the heat & rain. Hate the humidity!

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  12. It is fun, but I feel the need for a schedule coming...

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  13. Thanks for the tip! Who wouldn't love to win that??

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  14. Definitely forced to slow down!

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  15. Facebook. It's where I find everything, lol!

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  16. I prefer cold weather running too, although I love summer activities!

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  17. I just found your blog (thanks to googling stuff about Mizuno's Runbird logo, and then mezashimii, and here we are), and I'm loving it!

    Thanks for the dew point chart - a good reminder to always check humidity before lacing up in the summertime. I'm running a half in a few weeks and my long runs lately have been awful. And to think, a July half marathon in Chicago SEEMED like a really great idea back in March...

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