It's been a few weeks since the weather started to heat up. It had been ok until this past week with highs in the 90s in Ohio. This has actually been good timing with the sunrise being at 6am and being able to get done early before work. The other challenge has been thunderstorms. Trying to dodge them and sneak a run in there during times when there isn't one on the way . Another downside of hot and humid weather in Ohio is that it tends to create more storms.
Something else I started doing was listening to books online through the Audible app. I started with My Year of Running Dangerously by Tom Foreman and then when I finished that one began reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Both had some good ideas and entertainment that I took with me. I'm still working on the latter book and I'm at the point where they are running their race with the Tarahumara people. I should be near the end I'm thinking...
One interesting theory from the Born to Run book had to do with running barefoot being better for you and more of a natural way of running. Not sure if I'll be trading my well cushioned shoes in for vibram five fingers, but it was a consideration. I'd have to reduce the drop on my shoes and gradually become more minimalist. However, I feel pretty good lately and have running very consistent 20-25 mile weeks since January so I am not sure I need to make that change yet.
One thing I'm proud of for this year is my consistency. For the first 5 months so far (and into the 6th month now) I've averaged 90-100 miles each month. Last year I wasn't consistent per se. The big goal was training for the marathon and so I had a few months over 100 miles. One was 144 miles (August 2016). Of course that will happen during marathon training so its to be expected that mileage will be high. This year I really hadn't gone beyond a half marathon so it's been easier to be consistent. I'm considering doing a 20 mile race in September because I didn't want to train for a marathon again but figured 20 miles would be doable. I remember last year feeling at my best around 18-20 miles and beyond that was somehow really hard. Maybe my point of "hitting the wall" is around 20... still trying to figure out if I did this what kind of training plan and taper would be reasonable.
My speed training has been a lot harder in the warm weather. I haven't gotten below a 9:00 pace in a few weeks. I was reading a story about how it's harder to run in the heat so maybe I need to cut myself some slack. I hope that if it cools down, I'll get to try some speedy miles sometime this summer. There's not much on the horizon for the next few weeks. I am going to do a trail 10k in July but I hear it is not really that "traily" and more like a metropark (just a more difficult metropark). Of course will do a review later. The last trail run I did was a half marathon and it was just so rooty and rough that I swore off of trails for a little while. With recent development of the hammertoe I've actually been avoiding trail running. Seems that changes in terrain will aggravate it more but regular road racing doesn't do much.
Another thing I've been trying to do is run fast half marathons on the trails (not a race setting) to get closer to 2 hours. I had a 2:04 and a 2:09 recently. You wouldn't think cutting off 15-30 seconds a mile would be so tough but somehow it is. The 2:09 day was really hot and humid, so I'm going to blame it on that.
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