Training Continues

Well, the Beev and I continue to train. We had a big meeting Tuesday morning, so we had to put off our run to the afternoon. BIG MISTAKE!!!

Oh my goodness! It was sooooooooooooo hot. Probably almost 90 degrees and no clouds. There are some stretches of our running trail that are in the direct sunlight - no trees. Believe me, it felt like the sun was touching us it was so hot. (I do realize if the sun was actually that close, we would vaporize or explode or something).

Our plan was to run 3 miles - a short run for us now. We started off and before we reached the end of mile 1 I was thinking, no way....I'm not going to make it. We made it to about the 1.3 mile mark and I stopped running. Couldn't run a step further. Was feeling a bit dizzy. It was so hot. In hindsight, I probably should have had a sports-type drink prior to the run given the heat. Ahhh, next time. We walked for a bit and then ran again for a bit. We finished the 3 miles, but most of it was walking. We do not run well in the heat!

We met again this morning to run another 3 miles. We made it today! It was nice and cool. But our time was not that great. I'm trying to figure out why that would be after great times last week. We have a few theories. But, the one we think is probably right is that maybe I run better when listening to music because I turn it up so loud I can't hear myself breathing. I breathe very loudly - in and out of my mouth - when I run. This starts immediately and it sounds like I'm going to die because I'm so out of breath. Clearly I'm not out of breath right when I start. But maybe it's just a mental thing for me. I hear myself breathing that heavy and think gotta save energy so slow down. But, when I listen to my music, I can't hear my breathing. I run more according to how my legs and heart feel. It's all mental....crazy sport.... I used to be able to just listen to Beev talk and that was fine. But that doesn't seem to be working anymore, so we gotta shake things up. We got to a point where I was able to talk for quite a bit of the run too and that made it more interesting for me and took some of the pressure off from Beev to keep talking. But now since we seem to be so focused on the times, that doesn't work either. I can't run fast (for me) and talk.

Our plan.....next week when we run together again...I will wear my headphones and listen to music as we run together. Beev will decide if she wants to run with or without music. Maybe this will work - or maybe we just need to slow down and not worry about times so we can both participate in conversation while running. We'll see how it develops.

Perry