Thursday, July 21, 2011

Plan B? What's a Plan B?

Have you heard? There's a heat wave going on so it is hot. I know! It's summer. And it's hot! Go figure . . .




Anyway, yesterday was really hot and -- wouldn't you know it -- I had a 5 mile tempo run on the schedule. Before heading out for my run in the evening, I double-checked my training plan, just to make sure I was right. Yup. Wednesday, July 20: 5 mile tempo. Sigh.

I told Owen. He told me it was hot. I said I knew. He said I had to remember to be flexible. I told him I would skip the tempo run. He told me that was a good idea.

So, that was that. I planned to skip the tempo and run 5 easy miles. I started up the hill that begins my regular running route and I was going sloooooow. I kept on running but as I got half-way up the next hill I felt like giving myself a big smack on the head. What are you doing? I asked myself.

Are you really giving up on your plan this early in the training cycle? How are you going to go after your A goal in the half if you let a little heat get in the way of your Plan A? This is July. It's hot. You knew you were going to have to train through the summer when you signed up for the race. So what are you doing? You need to suck it up, Happy Runner. Suck. It. Up.


You had better believe that when I hit Mile 1, I picked up the pace.

My original plan for the 5 mile tempo was a 1 mile warm-up followed by 3 miles at 8:00/mile and then a 1 mile cool-down. I went for it. Heat and hills and all.

The 3 fast miles didn't exactly hit the pace I was shooting for -- I averaged 8:14 per mile for the 3 miles instead of 8:00 -- but, you know what? That's fine. My effort was undoubtedly there. I pushed on and felt better for it.

Tempo run #1 . . . DONE!


Plan B? What's that? We're all about Plan A here!


Stay cool, everyone!

~ Felice



10 comments:

Unknown said...

great job!

macnic said...

Awesome job! I switched my tempo to med-long last night and will run tempo at the gym tonight. It is way too hot!

Tricia said...

super awesome!

Marlene said...

Good for you. It is so hard to be motivated to run fast when it's this hot. You adjusted the pace but the effort was there, which means you got the workout done. Way to go!

J said...

Awesome!! With this heat hitting the paces is so tough but at least you got out there and were very close! well done!

Erik Ammon said...

Awesome job in this heat! Your pace wasn't too far off either! Way to tough it out!!

Laura said...

Great job. I am convinced that mental toughness plays a huge role in hot weather running. You have to not only be 'smart' about if you should push it but also .... know when to push it and not use it as an excuse.

Julie D said...

I took care of the run on the treadmill. Not the same, but better than a skip!

Unknown said...

Nice job! Way to beat the heat!

Tina @GottaRunNow said...

Yay for getting the tempo run done in the heat!

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