I have had a refresher course in running in heat and humidity visiting the Midwest this week! There are both positive and negative things about it. On the minus side is some nasty stuff – heat, humidity, all hard surfaces (no trails), traffic, noise, pollution. Yikes! It is hard to remember that just 16 months ago this was all completely normal for me.
Despite the weather, the plus side is huge: I’ve been able to run with my daughter – what a pleasure! Julia pushes me harder than I push myself – we run faster with fewer walking breaks. Walking breaks are something I take to help lower my heart rate and get my mind back into the run, but I do need to work on taking fewer and shorter breaks. She even got me to a track one morning!! I’ve never run on a track before – for some reason it seems a little intimidating – but it was comfortable since Julia was there. While Julia did some intervals (200 at 3K pace with 200 recovery), I focused on just keeping one foot moving after another. She “lapped” me in about 10 minutes since we run at such difference paces by ourselves!
Now I am really looking forward to the return to the Pacific Northwest with its beautiful scenery, wonderful trails right outside my door, cool temps (usually), even the hills. I am so lucky to live where I do!
The 2 of us back in the spring of 2009 after a 10k. Julia placed in her age group!
