Good Miles and Bad Miles or Humidity Stupidity

It's been so humid here, especially in the mornings. I sweat about 3 gallons and just feel awful on the run. I've found if I drink regularly I can handle it--like every 3 or even 2 miles. I wish I had a handheld water bottle for these days! I've managed to hit my workouts in this nast, which is a nice surprise, but it isn't particularly pleasant.

I ran 6 averaging 6:25 on Thursday evening pretty much by myself. That's particularly nice because that was the goal! I warmed up with E and NC and then we all did our respective workouts. I tend to run well that way. There's company out there so I don't feel alone and I feel somewhat accountable to my teammates, but I don't feel pressure to run faster than my goal to keep up with them.

Over the weekend I had 17 @ 7:30 and a 12 mile progressive run on tap. The 17 miler was awful. The first 6 were a little rough, but I had my old running buddy keeping me company. But once he left it was a slog. Despite drinking a ton and even taking a gu at 10.25 I started feeling stitchy and light headed and found myself muttering profanity as I'd stop to avoid a stitch or to get my head back in the game. It really took way more effort than I'd like to get the miles in. I stopped looking at the pace on the watch around 14 and somehow still managed to average 7:28--not sure how I managed that! It all made sense when later in the afternoon when #2 woke up from her nap with a cold. Said cold infected me late Sunday. It's mild, but surely was enough to make me feel crappy on Saturday morning's run.

Even so, I managed a decent progression run on Sunday with NC. We ran a rolling first 4 averaging about 7:15. Then 4 at 7:00. NC's IT band has been bugging her so she bailed and I had to finish the last 4 myself. The goal was to run 6:50 for the last 4. Again, I drank a lot, but still struggled at first only managing a 7:00 first mile of this set, but then I rallied and ran a 6:52. Stopped for gatorade and then hammered out 2 miles in the low 6:40's and it felt surprisingly good. It reminds me of a quote I read in Running Times today. Amy Hastings was recalling some advice imparted by Deena Kastor: there will be good miles and bad miles in both training and races. Ain't that the truth!

Tonight I am heading to the track for a 1600 time trial. I'm super excited for it and hoping that this one will be a good mile!