I love Heat Advisories

It makes the runs so much tougher and miserable. We were spoiled with such a mild summer last year that it is only fitting we are getting killed this year. But, it has helped morale a bit when hitting a hard workout under said crappy conditions, and hopefully the worst is behind us after this week (all week heat advisory - heat indexes up to 115!). Before I jump into my uber-update, Chris Solinsky continues to amaze - 12:55 in Stockholm, yikes! And Ryan Hall blogs about his diet and constant snacking. Something I need to pay closer attention to myself - you don't fuel a high performance vehicle with junk and expect it to perform at an optimal condition...

Saturday, got up pretty darn early for the long run. Met with Crystal, did our customary out and back. Weather was surprisingly not awful, and we got a slightly later start because it wasn't light out yet. Felt somewhat decent, and it was getting warm as the sun came out. Made a couple bathroom pitstops on the run, but didn't affect anything and the small breaks were fine. Somewhere on the trail, looked at my watch to see how far along we were - saw 6.66 on the mileage, which was the 3rd consecutive weekend that had happened, not the greatest omen. Anyways, never really pushed the pace, which was nice. Ran into Pat the last mile and was nice to have a third out there to finish it off. Total mileage: 16 miles - splits were: 9:13, 8:47, 8:33, 8:35, 8:46, 8:34, 8:33, 8:33, 8:33, 8:43, 8:38, 8:34, 8:36, 8:32, 8:14, 9:22.

Sunday morning, woke up a little later and immediately regretted not getting the run in earlier. Was pretty warm and sunny, but had a decent amount of shade so wasn't too unbearable. Did out and back on the trail towards Glen Carbon - felt tired, and my knees were a little sore. Could feel the pace picking up, but tried to control it. Coming back, could feel that we just wanted to get the run over with and jacked the pace up. Both of us were getting tired and didn't want to overwork, so made it a point to slow down/cool down the last mile. Looked down at my watch at some point to see where we were at, and saw the dreaded 6.66 yet again! Probably not the best idea to tinker with an easy/recovery run, but we never pushed it to the point we were out of control. Glad that was over with. Total mileage: 8 miles - splits were: 8:47, 7:52, 8:24, 7:54, 8:01, 7:53, 7:28, 7:56. Hit close to 40 for the week and was disappointed I cheated away some easy miles, but hit some key workouts.

Monday, forgot to pack shoes and clothes for group run, so completely crapped out on that. The weather was pretty atrocious, so waited until really late to get in a run. Felt really lethargic, and it was just thick outside. Got a couple miles into my easy run (not pushing the pace at all), and just didn't feel right. Actually started to dry heave at some point, and decided to lean on the side of caution and cut my easy run short. Drank about a gallon of water, passed out shortly afterwards. Total mileage: 3 miles - total time out was ~25 minutes

Tuesday, waited until really late for my track work. Tried to think of every possible excuse in the book to not do this workout (20X400), but ultimately got myself out the door and on the track. Helped a ton that Pat and Crystal were up there doing their respective workouts. It was just nasty outside, but there was a slight hint of a breeze which helped a little. Completely crapped out on the warmup/cooldown since I wanted to get out of outside as soon as possible, and also didn't jog in between reps like I was supposed to - instead took 45-75 second breaks, and 2-3 minute breaks in between sets (5 reps). The plan was to start at 10K pace, then gradually speed up each set, trying to hit 2-3 seconds faster per set. Blazed through the first couple sets fine, but had a lot of trouble keeping the slower pace - almost every single rep, I went through the 200 at 40-42 seconds which is just way too fast if I'm trying to hit 1:30-1:32. So I ended up slowing down substantially on the home stretch, almost jogging it in. Pat and Crystal left after 11 reps, so I was on my own to finish it out. Hammered through the 3rd set, but the heat started to get to me and really had to work the last set. Legs were tired on the last few reps and was using arms a lot - felt like my body was overheating, but just willed it out. Temperature was still 90 when I was finished (after 9 p.m.), and the humidity was almost overbearing - not the best conditions to do 400 meter repeats, but pretty proud of myself that I stuck with it and nailed the workout. Total mileage: 5 miles - 400 meter splits were: 1:30, 1:30, 1:29, 1:29, 1:28, 1:28, 1:30, 1:27, 1:29, 1:29, 1:30, 1:27, 1:26, 1:25, 1:24, 1:23, 1:23, 1:22, 1:18, 1:16.

Crapped out yet again on the morning workout, but will get in mileage and some drills tonight with Crystal. Tomorrow, some speedwork, then a much deserved offday on Friday! Gearing towards running a 5K next weekend over in Hecker, IL. Billed as a tiki-torch run, this particular 5K is run at night with tiki-torches lighting the way. Should be a fun time!