Of hot runs and early runs and hot, early runs...this week's notes

Cooldown view from the dock...

Random Training Thoughts

It's almost always unpleasant for me to get up and run early. I think running is hard. Period. One of the reasons I love it so much is because it's hard. But, oddly, I also don't think I need to make it any harder than it already is by forcing myself to get up early and run before I've had a chance to have my first cup of coffee. Still, races start early. And I hear that for the Dopey Challenge, I'll need to be out of my hotel room by 3 a.m. (?!?!?) to make it to the start lines on time. Compared to that start time, my 6 a.m. alarm this morning for a 6:30 run was nothing, really. I wonder what the best way is to prepare for those early a.m. wake-up calls. Is it best to go cold turkey? 

Here's my week of training (so far) in Indiana heat (which I get is different from Arizona or Florida heat):

Tuesday p.m. (80+ degrees and humid): Ran 4.27 miles, and it felt like I was in a furnace the whole time. When I slowed to a walk to cool off, I didn't cool off. It felt like blasts of hot air were just hitting me every time I stopped to walk, so I might as well run more. 

Wednesday lunch: SWIM. Yep, I got in the pool. A happy place for me.

Thursday a.m. 6:30 a.m., actually. Ran 3.84 miles. I needed to be home by 7:30. I don't always enjoy having a deadline by which I need to wrap a run, but this morning it helped. My pace was a little bit better than usual. This morning, while not hot, was quite humid.

Disney Planning 

I'm keeping my eye out for cheap fares for flights to Orlando. I started looking for fares on Southwest on Tuesday. Tuesday: $473.96 each. Wednesday: $337.50 each (same flights). Thursday: $349.95 each. Ironically, I found a site that told me that I should buy tickets from Southwest on Tuesdays. Clearly not THIS week Tuesday. The price drop between Tuesday and Wednesday was $140/ticket. That's nuts. Still waiting to see just how low I can get the tickets to go. I get it's a gamble. At the same time, if anyone out there has any secrets for getting a good price, I'm all ears. 

When we went to Disney as a family the first time, we bought a stroller on Amazon and had it shipped to our hotel so that we wouldn't have to take it on the plane. It worked out fantastically well. It was waiting in our room when we got there, and we got to use it for the week and then brought it home and sold it for almost the purchase price. I'm thinking about doing the same thing with some groceries for the race week. I'm kicking around the idea of putting together a grocery order through Amazon or some other site and having it shipped to the hotel. (Not planning on selling the leftovers when I get home, though.) 

Shoes and Miles for the Year

I am switching between two pairs of shoes for training right now. I've always tried to rotate shoes, and I've always based retirement on feel rather than on the number of miles on the shoes. But this time, I'm trying to actually track usage in my log. Four runs in, and it's not a shocker that there's already a big imbalance in use. I tend to go for whichever shoes are closest. Confirmed. Try harder, Kim!

And according to my running log, as of July 13, 2017, I've put in 639.1 miles this year. Definitely on pace to hit my 1,000 mile goal again. On July 13 of last year, I had only run 352.65 miles. I was off pace for my 1,000 mile goal, so I started a run streak that went for 188 days. That won't be the case this year, but I think the Dopey training plan will keep me on pace.

Not much to see here, today. Just some rambling thoughts of a runner.