Pushing Through

The heat here has been completely, totally insane. I heard on the radio this morning that temps reached 100 yesterday, and it’s been in the upper 90’s for a couple of weeks now. Needless to say, I’m hating this. I can’t get myself out when it’s that hot. I tell myself that I’ll get up in the morning and run before work, but then I stay up too late studying and have a hard time dragging my behind out of bed at 7.00 for work. On those days I say that I’ll run in the evening, once it cools down…but it’s still over 85 at 8.00 PM and I have to study…starting the cycle all over again. I somehow still manage to get it done, usually in the evenings, but it’s not even enjoyable and I’m hating life the entire time.

I only rode to work once over the past two weeks too. After forgetting my water bottle at home and just assuming I could make it on the small bottle I had at my office, I learned the importance of proper hydration in the heat. There were a couple of times I got dizzy and almost crashed into the guardrail separating the trail I was on from a very busy street. I’m teaching myself to let go of my handlebars to grab my bottle now though and I feel a lot more confident that I’ll be able to ride without dying from lack of water anymore (yes, letting go of the handlebars is a new trick for me, I realize how lame I am).

I’m up to 6 miles for my long runs now. I know it’s not much and I spend a lot of time wondering if I’ll really be ready for NYC, but I’m putting all my trust into my schedule. I know it’s not ideal for me to even attempt this race considering the injuries this year, but I really, really want to do this. I’m trying to make smarter decisions and have finally made an appointment with a podiatrist for later this week to see what we can do about my foot pain. Hopefully a set of orthotics is all I’ll need to continue.

I have my second triathlon a week from this coming Saturday. I haven’t specifically trained for it, and I’m not going to worry about my time or about the people I know getting competitive with it. I think I let other people get to me too much when I did Jay Benson and that kind of took away from the fun of it. I’m generally a competitive person, but not with stuff like this. I like to just be out and enjoy the moments surrounded by like-minded athletes (I still feel weird calling myself an athlete)…if I beat my PR, that’s awesome. If not, I had fun. And like I’ve always said – someone’s gotta come in last, and at least I know I can have a good attitude about it. If I hadn’t gotten into NYC I’m sure I’d be making a bigger deal out of this, but right now it’s just not my priority.

The hubs and I are also 99% sure we’ll be participating in the NM Marathon festivities in September – but we’re only doing the half. Mike’s been racing amazingly well lately. He did his first half marathon in 2:02 and a 10k last weekend in 54:00. I think he said he’s hoping to break 2:00 for this race. If I can do it in about 3:00, which is what I did my first (and only) half in, I’ll be pleased. One of my really good friends is also doing the full – it’ll be her first and I’m excited to be involved knowing she’ll be out there somewhere on the course too.

I’ve also gone back to my roots – timed intervals, the way I learned how to run almost 2 years ago. I attempted the 1 mile run/1 minute walk thing for Denver and for all my training before and after that and it just wasn’t working for me. Before I knew it, I wouldn’t even pay attention to the time on my walk breaks. I’m sure they stretched into 2-3 minutes. I tried a 5 min run/1 min walk interval last week on my 5 miler and finished it 2 minutes faster than the last (and fastest so far) 5 miler. I did it again on Saturday’s 6 miler and finished in 1:23…3 minutes slower than my fastest 6 miler, which was run about a month after Denver when I was in the best shape of my life. I’m finishing feeling great and the only times I’ve extended a walk break was if my heart rate was through the roof (I’ve also started using my HRM), but never by more than an extra 30 seconds. I’m pretty excited…I feel like I’m actually progressing now.