Last week I had an “extreme” activity/workout week.
As I wrote previously, I am training for the first competitive division race I’ve run in. It is a 3K, and it is going to be at 6PM. As in outside. In July. When it is extremely hot. I’ve been getting faster and faster in just running the distance, but have been training inside.
I didn’t want to exhaust myself too much with hot weather running, but had planned to do one run at 6PM, a week before the race. Last Wednesday I did, and it was a lot harder than I thought. I was a minute and a half slower than I have been at the gym. The weather was hot- it was in the 90’s, windy, and it was draining.
While I was disappointed with the time, I worked out a better strategy for race day. I normally start out very fast and maintain the pace. I realized within the first few minutes on Wednesday, this would be very hard to do in the heat. I slowed down a bit to conserve some energy until I was just under 1.5 miles. Then I increased my speed, and had a fast finish.
The weather is going to be such a factor in this race. Today they are saying upper 80’s, and lower 90’s, with possible rain on race day. But it could also be in the mid 90’s and sun. I feel like I haven’t trained as well as I could for the hot weather, and wanted to get some more exposure to the heat.
On Friday I took off for a two hour bike ride at 11:30AM. Right in the heat of the day. It was in the upper 90’s. I made myself ride up hills. I was really tired at the 12 mile mark, but made myself push on for 3 more miles, so I could have a 30 mile bike ride round trip. The muscles in my legs were shouting for me to stop. Sweat was trickling down my head, neck, and arms. I could see the top of my thighs and shoulders turning red with sunburn. I only had a quarter of a water bottle left with warm water by this time, but I kept going-up and down three steep hills on the way home. A moment later, there was no pain, no need to stop. I had pushed through the pain, the heat and felt great.
When I got home, I realized I had only done 25 miles- I had rode to a town on the first leg of the trip, but did not ride through it on the way back. I didn’t hit the 30 mile mark, but I felt the bike ride called for a lot more endurance than I will need on race day. I managed two hours in the sun, exercising vigorously almost the entire time. I felt ready and prepared, but tired, as I packed to go on an easy backpacking trip for the weekend. I was looking forward to getting to the mountains and getting out of the heat and the record temperatures we were having.
As I drove to Denver I could not have known the run and the bike ride would end up being the easy part of the week. The most physically enduring, exhausting activity, I have ever done, was still to come…
(Due to lack of writing time, part two will appear on Thursday.)