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.