Heat

It is summer in the south, which means obscenely high heat and humidity. This makes it fairly unpleasant to go outside, much less train for a race. In any case, I have been running in temperatures well above 80 degrees and equally nasty humidity, and this includes both my easy runs and my harder runs. It's pretty impressive how much sweat comes off after a 45 minute run.

It was about this time last year that I was training for my first half-marathon, and I remember thinking that the heat was horrid and that I'd never get used to it. It took a few weeks, but I did get somewhat acclimated (the physiology of which is quite fascinating, but I'll spare the details). I did lose some heat tolerance over the winter, but I feel like I was able to acclimate faster this summer. Additionally, I do try to pick routes where there is shade and not so many hills, particularly on the really hot and humid days. We're heading into August, so hopefully there will just be another month of the really bad stuff. I know I'm definitely looking forward to fall.