Welcome to the Jungle

Welcome to the jungle, indeed! I started my run at about 5:15 this morning and it was already 80 degrees and 85% humidity. Eladio has said that you will feel 15 degrees warmer within the first 10 minutes of running, and direct sunlight will add another 10 degrees. So yeah, not comfortable at all. I am not typically a heavy sweater, and I was dripping after the first half mile. Fantastic. The great thing about where I live is that the major streets are laid out on a 1 mile grid, with intermediate streets every half mile. We happen to live pretty much right at the intersection of one of the main arterials and one of the ½ mile collector streets, so it’s really easy for me to know how far I’ve gone. I got to the one mile point and checked my watch; 10 minutes! Wow! I’m typically pretty slow, and just don’t run 10 minute miles. I took my requisite one minute walk break and started running again. I got to the 2 mile point and checked my watch; another 10 minute mile! Damn! I was doing pretty good! By that point the sun was coming up and it was starting to get hot(ter), so I had to slow down a bit. But I still ended up finishing my 7 miles quicker than my 12 min/mile average pace, so I was really happy about that.

My right IT band has been bothering me quite a bit lately, so I made sure to take some extra time to stretch that out on my foam roller when I got done. It’s funny, leading up to the marathon it was bothering me in the knee, now my knee is fine and it’s bothering me in my hip. I’ve also got a nagging blister on my right foot that won’t seem to go away completely, and it got fired up again today. Of course, it probably doesn’t help that the lady popped it BEFORE doing the salt scrub when I got a pedi on Saturday. Owie. But that blistering problem I’d been having on the bottoms of my pinky toes when I was training for the marathon hasn’t been bothering me too much. They still get sore, and I tape them for my long runs, but no blisters so far.

This Saturday is my birthday (ack! My last 20-something b-day!) and I get to treat myself with a 14 mile run. There are two other gals in my Runners Edge pace group that are on the same schedule as me, so we are always doing the same distance for our Saturday morning runs. We decided that this week, we’re going to start half an hour earlier and go out a mile and then come back so that we can get 2 miles in before starting with the rest of the group. It’s getting so hot now, that anything we can do to avoid some of the heat is a good thing. Even if it means getting up at 4:30 on my Saturday birthday :)