How Hot Is Too Hot?

"You have a choice. You can throw in the towel,or you can you it to wipe the sweat off of your face." - Gatorade

Training during the month of August in Texas is never fun. I think last year we had over 60 days of 100+ temps during the summer. We haven't had that many days over 100 this year, but the days we have had have seemed hotter. In August alone, I think all but maybe 5 days have been over 100 degrees. The high on two days was 105 and one day the high was 107. That's the real temp. The "feels like" temps have been up to 110 degrees. That's just too hot to be working out in.

So what have I been doing? Well, there have been some mornings where I've gotten up at 4am to get in my run before work. I don't really like getting up that early, but it does beat running in 105 degrees. Don't get me wrong. It's still hot at 4am. Like 80 degrees with 100% humidity. I came in one morning from a run and looked like I had ran through someone's sprinklers. I hadn't. But I was soaked. You could wring my clothes out and get a puddle. But it still beats running in the afternoon heat.

There have also been days where I've hit the treadmill or the trainer. I prefer not to do that either, but I'm not going to risk a heat stroke by going outside. I tend to runner slower on the treadmill, so you know my training is ramping up when I've done several treadmill runs and I will have my biggest run month ever this month (so far anyway). I've already run 107 miles this month and I still have at least 3 hours of running to do in the next 3 days.

Speaking of ramping up the training......Ironman Florida is just a little over 2 months away. This coming week will be the start of my peak training weeks. I will continually increase volume until about 3 weeks out and then will enter the taper phase. During my peak, my long bike ride will get up to 6 hours and my long run will get up to 3 hours. I'm just hoping and praying the cooler weather gets here fast.

This morning, I did a 4 hour bike ride followed by a 45 minute run. I started as soon as the sun came up and I have to say, it was a very pleasant (maybe even a bit chilly for me) 68 degrees outside. The first couple hours of the ride were very nice! But, by the time I got done with the ride and started running, the heat was in full force and I did have to wipe the sweat off my face a few times. I'm not throwing in the towel just because of the heat. I am, however, looking forward to the cooler temps of Florida in November.

Has It Really Been That Long?

"Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always gve up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. but the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you wer younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tire. You've always got to make the mind take over and keep going." George S. Patton, U.S. Army General and 1912 Olympian

Wow. I can't believe it's been over a month since I've updated this blog. I guess I HAVE been busy - with training as well as with family stuff. So what's been going on?

Well, I spent the first part of July getting ready for two big events. The first was the trip to Australia that my son went on with the People to People Student Ambassador Program. We needed to make sure he had the clothes he needed, Australian money, and all the essentials for a 14 hour flight. He left on July 14th and returned July 28. He had a wonderful time and brought back lots of memories.

The other thing I planned for was the camping trip we took my daughter on while my son was gone. She wanted to go camping in a tent, so we began our quest to borrow as much as we could and come up with a menu of good tasting vegetarian food to cook while we were camping.

Both of these events were successful in my opinion and I was still able to get my training in. It was actually kind of nice to see deer on my morning runs while we were camping. It would have been so much nicer to not run, but I have a goal and so I made myself get up and get it done.

Training is going well, but it is increasing in volume and I am starting to feel the effects. I can't sit down at night in the recliner to watch tv without falling asleep! My muscles feel fine, but my body needs rest. And with the increase in volume, it's getting harder to fit everything in. A couple of times I've had to set the alarm for 4am to get up and get my run in before work because I knew there would not be time after work. I've gotten pretty good at rearranging things to make it work. We'll see if I can keep that up, though, because things are getting ready to get busier.

At the beginning of August, my son's soccer season started. He had team camp the first week and has scrimmages 2 out of 3 weekends in August with an out of town tournament another weekend. That same week, my daughter had high school volleyball tryouts. She made the freshman A team and her schedule is packed. They had scrimmages Friday and Saturday and they have 3 games (none at home) this coming week. I feel 4am calling my name.

The training plan I'm following has a few more weeks of build. Then I will enter a few weeks of peak training before tapering. During that peak phase, my bike rides will get up to 6 hours of riding. While I'm not overly worried about being on the bike that long (I did a century ride in mid July and felt great), it will be hard to squeeze 6-7 hours of training into a Saturday morning. Mentally and physically. But my mind will have to make my body do it. I have to be ready in November.

I just keep telling myself, "three more months and then I can rest". Ha!