Back in the saddle

Sort of. First run in St. Louis! Although I would like it to be noted that yesterday should count as a physically active day. Henry and I went to visit the Arch (okay not so active) and then spent about 1.5-2 hours climbing around the City Museum (which was very active). 'Twas fun (for me at least, Henry seemed to enjoy trying to fit in too small spaces a lot less than I did...).

Today's workout: Short base run.
Summary: 3.86 mi, 36:50/36:56 total time, 9:33/9:34 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 9:01, 9:45, 9:40, 9:50.

The goal was actually to hit 4 miles, but I stopped at the light on Kingshighway and just couldn't get going again. According to Garmin, the temp was 84 F, which doesn't sound outrageous to some people but is absolutely insane for me. And I know it gets way hotter here during the summer. So I'm doing my best to adjust. Will probably be taking my runs short and slow for the time being to give my body a chance to get used to the heat.

I think the shift in climate/conditions is important for me though. I always say that there's no room for ego in training. You have to work at a level that your body is actually capable of in order to maximize your returns on training hours. It's a mentality that I first learned from coaches in the gym, but in reality extends to any kind of training that you do. The heat is the sort of challenge that really forces me to address this issue of ego. Usually, if you go too hard during a run and die towards the end, the only consequence is that you finish the run slower than you want to. As much as that sucks (and really compromises the gains you make during those workouts), it's not a "real" consequence in a lot of ways. If you don't balance your effort and goal-setting properly on a run in the heat though, there's a very real chance that dehydration will get you. The little extra bit of risk in the equation means that I have to be more aware and cognizant of where my body is at and be patient and reasonable when I'm planning and executing my runs. Sometimes that makes me feel like I'm holding back or not working hard enough, but days like today are good reminders that control and awareness are skills that I need to learn and manage in order to be successful both in training and racing.

Speaking of which, I read an interesting article on Triathlete.com today about negative splitting the bike leg, and the author made a point of saying that if you don't feel like you went hard enough on the first half of the bike leg, you have the entire run leg to fix that, but if you go out too hard, you'll spend the entire run leg paying the price. I think I have to learn a bit of this mentality. I have a lot of fear and lack of confidence in my ability to bring races back strong so I err towards going too hard in the opening miles, but time and time again I've shown that I do my best training and racing when I ease into the harder efforts and build over the course of the first half before really firing up all the cylinders. Today was not a good day on that front: I took it out way too aggressively and paid for it trying to get back up the hills towards home.

All in all, there's a lot to be learned from this heat. I'm only really going to get the chance to run tomorrow and Wednesday and then it's back to Canada and a hectic/erratic schedule, so I'm going to try to take advantage. The goal will be 4.5 controlled and slow miles tomorrow. Hopefully building up to 5 miles by Wednesday. But we'll see how everything plays out. There's supposed to be quite a bit of rain coming our way, so the plans may not hold out the way I want them. Fingers crossed!

Much love,
Jess