Week 2 - Racing the Sun

Is it hot enough for you? I'm melting...

The weather forecast for my 5K tomorrow morning at 8 am is "few showers" and 65 degrees. I will be ecstatic if that's true!

Here is how my running week has gone so far...

Sunday - 3 miles. Outdoors at 9:30 am. It was hot but not as bad as the previous day
Monday - 5 miles. Indoors. It was a paced run, 9 minute pace. I missed my window to run in
                               the morning so I went to the fitness center in the evening. Big digital clock
                               on the wall said 6:55 when I started and 7:40 when I finished so good enough
                               for me.
Tuesday - 11 miles. Got up at the crack of dawn to do this. I actually considered going back to
                                 bed but didn't think I could take doing 77 laps indoors later in the day so I
                                 sucked it up and went out the door. I got 7 miles done before the sun really
                                 hit full force.
Wednesday - Rest. Suppose to cross train but I was too tired after getting in 2 hard runs 12 hours
                                apart. I figured going to work was enough cross-training for the day!
Thursday - 5 miles. Indoors. Again, missed my window in the morning so I ran at the fitness
                                center in the evening.
Friday - Rest. Went to work then went to Columbus to pick up my kids and drive the 5K course.
                        Not too hilly but there are 2 areas with gradual up slopes in the second half of the
                        race. Each is about 400 meters so hopefully I won't be too tired by then.

After tomorrow's 5K, I'll have 27 miles in for the week.

I have resigned myself to the fact that I'm going to have a lot of early morning runs this summer, literally racing the sun, to get them done while it's relatively "comfortable" outside. This new training program always has a hard paced run the day before the long run. The purpose is to make you tired and then have you do the long run at an easy (slow) pace. My 11 miler took me almost 2 hours. I am going to have to hit the road waaaay early because the long runs just get longer from here. In the past, it's taken me 4 hours to get my 20 milers in so we're talking getting up at 4:30 - 5 am to go running!

OK, going to bed now and dreaming about cool weather in the morning!