Marathon training has begun in earnest. Easy run on Monday. Speedwork on Tuesday. Rest day on Wednesday. Marthon Pace practice on Thursday. Easy run on Friday.
And of course it is the hottest week of the year.
I felt a little discouraged this morning during marathon pace practice because the heat pounded me. I've done this workout before without problems, but today was not that day. I wanted to bail out at mile 3 and 4 and 5, but made it through all 6. To think that some people train in 75 degree weather all the time is mind-boggling.
Then, after looking at my splits I saw I went about 10 seconds faster than goal marathon pace. What in the world. No wonder it felt extra hard. And with the heat equivalency, I was moving at closer to 10k pace than a marathon pace.
Ooof.
I think I approach running in the heat the same way I approach running in the extreme cold or heavy rains; there are only so many opportunities to take advantage of the adverse conditions. You never know what kind of real world conditions might happen on race day. Today for instance, in an awkward sort of optimistic way, I got to practice what to do when the wheels come off of a run. Obviously if this is happening with frequency, then there is a problem, but not every run is going to rainbows and puppies.
Even though it wasn't a pretty run today, mentally I needed to squeeze every mile out of the work out because the excuses were coming in hot and heavy.
"It's ok to pull up short...its the start of the training cycle you'll be fine"
"This hot weather is awful, its ok to stop now"
" Four miles six miles, what's the difference" (I know...2 mile)
I needed to bat back these excuses in real time
and I did.
1 mi warm up +
7:07
7:05
7:06
7:05
7:13
7:16
HR ~161
1 mi cool down