Day 2

For some reason, today's run did not feel quite as bad as yesterday's. I managed to get out a little earlier because I woke up at 6:30am for no reason at all (even weirder, I did this after sitting up late to watch the Red Sox game. They are on a West Coast tour and I keep telling myself that I will not stay up to watch the whole thing. Then it's already the 7th or 8th inning and I decide, 'Meh, why not?' Today, at least, is an afternoon game). There was more shade as a result. Also, I left my visor at home, which I think may be a culprit in why I feel so hot. It might be time to invest in the fancy, wicking one that I saw the last time I was at my local running store.

However, my time this morning was horrid. Horrid! Even worse than when I first started running. Some of this has to be because of the temperature, but still, it makes me nervous to see this. Over the past couple of months, I have not been running as much because I wanted to give my body some rest before tackling a marathon program. That's not to say that I wasn't doing anything: I swam, did weights, went to yoga, and aqua-jogged. But now I'm nervous that I left it for too long. Part of running, for me, is that you have to have faith in whatever you are doing. For instance, you have to believe that your training plan will have you adequately prepared for the race. Then you have to believe that you will execute the training plan properly so that you will be prepared for the race. Then you have to actually execute it. These things make me worry because I'm always afraid that I'm not up to the challenge. I hope that I didn't let things slide too much by taking a break because if I'm really running this slowly, then it will be lot of very slow, very very long runs.

You would think that you would speed up from doing lots of running over time, right? Not necessarily. Speedwork can make a big difference and that isn't something that plays a huge role in my current training plan.

I need to look at the brighter side of things:

1. There is no way to get faster without just going out and running.
   
2. Worrying about getting faster will not make me faster. Complaining about running slowly also will not make me faster.
   
3. The weather really is challenging.

..........and now you see why I don't track my time any more.........

I will say this: if this morning's (and yesterday's) time is anything to go by, then I pulled off a minor miracle at last Saturday's Florida Death Run. The Florida Death Runs are a series done by the Lakeland Running Club (actually titled the Summer Sunrise Watermelon Series) where you run 5k around a lake. It's a beautiful course, well organized, and there is watermelon at the end. The only bad part: there are four races and they are all in the summer. Last Saturday, I did not do very well at all because of the high dew point/humidity. In fact, I had to walk at two points, which I just don't like to do except as a last resort. But I did go relatively faster than today (and yesterday), which must have taken a herculean effort. I didn't notice at the time because I was too busy trying not to die.

There is some good news. Next week I will be in Boston for a week and a half, so I can contrast and compare in more favorable conditions. If I am still this slow, then I will just have to confront that then. See three points listed above.