Thursday, September 22, 2005

When is summer over?

Today at 3:22 pm in Phoenix is supposedly the official change over to the Fall season. Whatever. Its still going to be over a 100 degrees for a few weeks. The nice thing is that from basically now until late March, the weather will be 70-80 degrees for the high, 45-50 degrees the low. Even though I sorely miss lush green woods, it is nice to have a six month summer while every one else is basically weathered in around the country. I suppose only Kahuna, Oldman and maybe Flatman will be able to get serious training time outdoors for the rest of the year. Lucky us.

Speaking of heat, yesterday was a ten mile run and it didn't matter the time, it just became a 'Gutter" and I think we all have had a few of those. No matter how bad I felt my goal was to run out five miles because there was only one way I knew of to get back. It was another one of those runs that afterwards my head didn't feel right.

Right now I am not so interested in lowering my run times but getting in the distance or time on my feet. Especially with running, there is no conditions I can duplicate in normal circumstances to prepare my body for a marathon after an ironswim and ironbike. So I figure no matter how bad I feel when I start my training run, I am physically better off than I will be during IMFL. So it just becomes a matter of mastering pain and mental anguish.

If I had succumbed to Common Man Syndrome yesterday, I would have turned around at the 2.5 mile mark. That's not getting me to my goal. I realize that part of the training has to be time on my feet, no matter the pain.


9 comments:

mipper said...

wtg on gutting it out. that's a good theory that i never thought of too. no matter how bad you feel, you'll probably feel worse after 114 miles in florida. excellent point.

IMmike said...

Great point. Today's 13 miler is going to be a gutter for me. You just have to go out and do it I guess.

Oldman said...

it gets that cold there? we never get below 65* with highs in the 80's.

good job gutting it out in the heat! i read that the temps for kona are 85 to 95 with high humidity on race day, kinda sounds like florida.

tarheeltri said...

I may miss some training in January and February, but for the most part it's pretty moderate here.

Flatman said...

Hey, it was almost 60 degrees here last CHRISTMAS! We hardly ever have freezing weather and even less get precipitaion during... Winter training rocks! (this should give us a head start on everyone next season) I can't wait!

Comm's said...

Oldman, being right on the water I should have guessed that. Here in the Sonoran Desert, the wind can get cold because it has nothing but dirt to blow over. Admittedly, its usually 60 degrees by sun up, but not at 0200.

THT- I didn't know the weather was so mild in NC. I figured it closer to Virginia's blizzard stuff. My bad.

Flatman- Winter Training Rocks

Wil said...

I am so psyched about fall training - there's nothing like crunching leaves while your run! I'm thinking of picking up a century ride up here, too, hot cider and food every 20 miles or so - not to mention the beautiful scenery. Yep - love fall!

Flabbyironman said...

eh, winter training here is just fine as long as you wait for daylight. Being high desert, when it snows it sublimates into the atmosphere before it melts and the rest melts off quickly after that. Because of that, most of the winter in Colorado Springs is pretty brown. Combine that with over 300 days of sunshine and you can ride pretty much year round and still head up into the mountains if you want to snowshoe or ski.

Chris said...

Don't worry. Next year, you can do some 120+ mile rides. With the heat where you're at, running afterwards most certainly will be harder that training day than race day! :)