Yesterday's run

Running in humidity is way worse than running in just heat. I have no more patience for people from dry states whining about how hot it is and how they have to stay inside from May through October.

I went outside for my run again yesterday. Same route as Tuesday, but the air temperature was a lot lower--about 94 degrees instead of 105. The humidity, however, was much higher, and that led to a MUCH harder run than on Tuesday. Tuesday was just hot but I never felt like I really shouldn't be doing this. Yesterday I took it just as easy as I did before, and drank even more water along the route, but felt worse the whole way. I didn't have my HRM on the last run so it's hard to compare, but my heart rate on this run shot into the high 170's pretty quickly and would stay at 174-178 on the flat bits, only dropping down to the low 170's on the downhills. I walked up hills so that kept my heartrate within reason (I didn't let it get above 180 at any point on the route). There's one point on the route at about the halfway mark that's at a low point with a pond nearby; the air there was just awful--much hotter than the rest of the route, with no breeze and significantly higher humidity. It should be an easy part of the route since it's a flat bit after a long downhill, but I actually look forward to the next hill to get out of that pit. By the last mile I walked more than I ran and struggled to keep it below 180. I suppose some of my difficulty was that I went into this run after two days of exercise instead of two days of rest, but overall I think it was the ickier weather that made it so much harder.

But the worst part was at the very end--the locker room. They've been turning down the a/c on parts of campus in the afternoons to save energy, and it felt like they had it off entirely in the locker rooms. It was disgustingly hot and humid from the showers. There was no way at all to get dried off. You take a shower, dry off, and are immediately covered with a sheen of dampness again. After trying to dry off with a towel and wads of paper towels, I gave up and just put my clothes on while wet. As I was changing there was sweat dripping from my face all over the floor. Really nasty. And it wasn't because I had been running outside--another woman in there after an elliptical workout was having the same problem. Going outside was a relief--the hot air dried me off a bit.

Today is a swim day and this weekend I have to get in another long brick. Probably Sunday afternoon since it's supposed to be stormy tomorrow, so I'll get another opportunity to run in the heat. Fun!