Heat Wave Continues

Kara, Galen's fall in Monaco (ouch!), Lagat didn't win but he's still really fast, what a track meet last weekend in Monaco!, is Bolt in trouble?, London is awesome, new Nike sportswatch review (not impressive to me quite honestly), Hall, running in heat, running in heat, and more running in heat.

Big River Running has a small group trying to hit the Olympic standards for the Houston Marathon in mid-January. Awesome to see Ben making a run at it for an unprecedented 3rd straight time, and BRR's page has a section dedicated to it that I think everyone should follow.

Been a whirlwind last week and a half, and a lot to catch up on. Went to Austin, TX on a bachelor party, where I am pretty sure I got sick as this last week or so has been tortuous. Not to mention the current heat wave that we have experienced, so quality workouts have been few and far between. Here we go...

Wednesday, July 13 - 6 miles + drills. Ran with Crystal, quite frankly don't remember much of this.

Thursday, July 14 - Sunday, July 17th - 0! Heat + bachelor party + crazy weekend = bad

19 miles this week, awful.

Monday, July 18 - 6 miles + drills. P.M. run with C, instanely hot outside and felt like complete garbage. Drills were rough as my legs felt like complete rubber. Something is definitely wrong with my body.

Tuesday, July 19 - 7 miles (2 up, 4x(2x200, 1x800) (improvised), 2 down). Another insanely hot day (how many 115 heat index days can we possibly have???), started at 8:45 p.m. and sweating bullets within 3 minutes of the warmup. Very little air movement on the track, so just tough to be outside. After the first speed rep, determined I wasn't going to hit the 800's going in so changed to 400's. Tim and I traded off 400's to pace Crystal through, and made it but felt rough doing so. Splits were: 200's - 38-40 seconds, 400's - 1:18-1:20, 800 - 2:39. Pace felt fine, just felt like garbage and the intense heat/humidity didn't help.

Wednesday, July 20 - 6 miles. Saw Harry Potter 2 with Pat, Crystal, and Megan after work. Got dragged into a late 6 mile run with Crystal in discussing the movie (pretty awesome!). Hot and humid, felt a little better but definitely was swimming in the heat. Amazing that it was still 85 degrees (95 degree heat index) at 10 p.m. Just disgusting. 50:32 was total time out there.

Thursday, July 21 - 0! Intended on treadmill, ended up passing out for many hours. Still feel sick.

Friday, July 22 - 0! See above. Sleep > running. Ken and Erin were in town, but was able to catch up with those guys on a night out. Sad that I can motivate myself to drink a few, but not run a few. But to my defense, I still felt pretty crappy.

Saturday, July 23 - 3 miles. Ran at 9:45 p.m. in yet again disgustingly hot weather. 270 loop, lost a few lbs. in sweat I am guessing. Ran anywhere from 21-25 minutes, surprisingly faster than it should have been.

Sunday, July 24 - 14 miles. Ran with Crystal, Candace, and Devin. Met up around 5:45 a.m. (already 83 degrees and getting sunny), started out pretty slow trying to get into a rhythm. Lost the girls pretty quick in, but not really surprised and tried to keep a somewhat even pace. Turned around, made a pitstop at Miner Park to splash some water on me, but a fateful mistake as the stopping and going kind of killed me. Last 4 miles were pretty tortuous, as the heat/fatigue was getting to me. Averaged high 8's, low 9's total, threw up all my Gatorade afterwards. Gross.

36 miles this week, crap but all considering not bad.

Monday, July 25 - 4 miles. Done late, and quite honestly not sure why I even attempted this. Really hot outside, and felt like crap. Ran very slow, not sure the pace.

Tuesday, July 26 - 6 miles cutdown tempo a.m. Treadmill, not my favorite but needed to be done with busy evening and oppressive heat. Thought about quitting a few times, but I have determined that I have been the biggest baby and need to make it hurt every now and then, so blasted through and hit the workout I wanted. Last mile, the treadmill wouldn't go any faster, so I jacked the incline up. Definitely felt that, but blew through it. Feel pretty good. Splits were: 6:57, 6:57, 6:46, 6:46, 6:40, 6:28.

Going to try for for a later run this evening if I can get to it. Easy mileage, nothing too crazy.

So race week is this week,