feeling hot, hot, hot!

My first long run was on Saturday. I woke up to an 85 degree heat index at 6:15, which quickly rose to over 90 by the time my run was complete.

I stocked my fuel belt with Gatorade, water, Gu and a salt packet (I do the salt!) and ran the few blocks from Matt’s apartment to the Inner Harbor to join a Baltimore Marathon supported course run. Like most Baltimore runs, it was hilly, with the first half on an incline and the second half back down. Despite being up hill, the first half actually felt pretty good. The sun wasn’t really up yet, so I was able to hide in the shadows of row homes. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realized my Garmin was low on batteries and it petered out before I even got started, so I’m not sure of my pace. I’m guessing between 9-9:30/miles. After a stop for Gatorade and water about half way through, I looked forward to the descent back to the harbor. Normally I relish in the downhills, but my quads were screaming all sorts of profanities at me since I’ve been trying to use them more in my stride. It was getting increasingly hotter and I know my pace slackened quite a bit. Luckily, I was running with a girl I used to play basketball with, so we kept each other going and decided that it was perfectly fine to cut the run short at 9 miles. It didn’t seem like many other people in the running group were continuing on past the 8.5 mile mark, either. With it being so insanely hot, I think I might have done more damage by attempting to eek out another mile than fitness lost by cutting it short.

Run totals (approximate): 9 miles, 10 min/mile pace???

***
After resting on Sunday, I had an easy 4 mile run this morning. The weather was much improved (only 75 with 65-70% humidity).  I attempted to charge my Garmin last night, but apparently once I put my lap top into hibernation last night, it stopped charging it, so I was sans Garmin again.

My rough estimate for this morning: 4 miles, 9:25 min/mile pace