Week 3 of my marathon training was pretty good overall. I was travelling this week. So on Thursday, I had to get in my tempo run on the treadmill at the hotel. Hotel treadmills are not always reliable. Many of them are old. Sometimes, there is a really nice fitness room and others have only one or two treadmills. I never know what I am going to find. Luckily this hotel had two treadmills and since I had to get up earlier than usual, I was the only one in the room. I was able to get a good tempo run which was nice.
I am going to admit here and now that I am truly struggling with the heat during my runs. Mostly it is affecting my long runs. How crazy is it to be out trying to get in an 8 or 10 miler when it is 90+ degrees at 5:00 a.m.? I can't even imagine the challenge when my training schedule calls for a 15 to 18 miler. But regardless of the temperature, I have to train for this marathon if I am going to be able to finish it with a smile on my face and have any chance of breaking 4 hours. While I get frustrated when I have to stop and take a walk break, I keep going because I know cooler temperatures await me in New York.
When I last wrote about training in the heat (July 2013 & June 2014), I had found some research that stated that for every 10-degree increase in air temperature above 55 degrees, there's a 1.5 to 3 percent increase in average finishing time for a marathon. This means that if I am averaging a 9 minute mile during a 10 mile run at 55 degrees in 90 minutes, I can expect it to take me up to 100 minutes if it is 85 degrees out. What the article states was that you slow-down because the heat impacts your body in various ways, including dehydration, increased heart rate and reduced blood flow to the muscles used for running. I can actually feel the dehydration setting in as I run which is why in the summer I always carry water with me.
What I need to do to reduce my frustration when I am out there is to simply change my expectations. I know that I cannot expect to maintain or improve my average pace through the hottest months of summer. I need to learn to be patient. I need to understand that my body must acclimatize to these hotter temps. I have trained through the summer every year since moving here to Arizona. So this is nothing new. I just never had to log the miles necessary to prepare for a marathon. So I am going to include walk breaks in my long run plan. I will take them after every 3 miles. Hopefully this will allow me to manage my heart rate and core body temperature and avoid overheating.
There is no arguing that training in the summer here in Arizona is hard. The sun is extremely bright and it is simply brutal outside. It seems that no matter how well I plan each run, there seems to be no distance that doesn't exhaust me in the end. There are two quotes from Yoda that I think of each time I head out my door for a run -- "Do or do not. There is no try" and "Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose." There is no doubt that training in the summertime is mostly a mental challenge. Of course there are physical considerations. But I know that if I can simply let go and just do, I will be much stronger in the end and be ready for the challenge of the NYC Marathon.
On to week 4!
July 18 – 6.20 miles (1:04:10, 10:21 pace)
July 19 – 6.20 miles (57:44, 9:19 pace)
July 21 – 6.20 miles (55:52, 9:01 pace)
July 22 – 7.20 miles (1:05:05, 9:02 pace)
July 23 – 10.20 miles (1:38:13, 9:38 pace)
July 24 – 10.1 miles (1:34:01, 9:19 pace)
Total Miles: 46.1 miles
2016 Total Miles: 1,064.5 miles
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