Since today was merely hot rather than stifling, I decided to go for a run during my lunch break. Urgh. Still too hot to be comfortable, I became overheated rather quickly and was forced to slog through the last third of the 4 mile run (finishing in 33:36 if you're counting.)
Having said that, I tried to embrace a mindset change while I was running. Like the story about the Devil's Valley race in Born To Run, I tried to reset and just divorce my mind from the heat. In other words, I just muscled through it. I'm tired now, mentally and physically, but finishing tough runs in this manner is probably good mental practice for end-of-race conditions. You know - when you're dying, with that painful stitch in your side, and want to stop so badly but know you can't. At least that's what I'm telling myself until the weather gets a bit cooler!
I don't have the details at my fingertips, but there was a story in a recent Runners World about an experiment where two sets of runners were given identical treadmill training regimes, except that one group had to do it at hot temperatures, while the other group did it at cool temperatures.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the training the group that had trained in the hot temperatures showed more physical improvement than the group that had trained in the cool temperatures.
Something that I try to keep myself going with!