Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Jungle Running

I got in a swim over the weekend. It was thundered out about 80% of the way into it. I was swimming in board shorts which felt like I was pulling a huge weight and made the swim quite a bit more challenging. I blogged about board shorts last year, I think. Never again for a workout! I think it's good to challenge oneself, but board shorts are miserable for any sort of extended swimming. Didn't get the runs in that I wanted to. Oh well.

I got out Tuesday and today, Wednesday. Both runs were struggles. The humidity has been outrageously high the past couple of days and I could feel my strength ebbing with each step as I fought for air. It was like running in a jungle. Admittedly, I'm not where I'd like to be but the past two days have been much harder than expected and I do think it's the humidity (85% today according to my hygrometer). I'm considering going again tomorrow, but we'll see -- the humidity is to persist as well. I went on Tuesday at 10:30 AM to get a feel for potential conditions at Falmouth and it was less than fun. I hit the road today around 6:30 AM and it still was misery inducing.

I've noticed that I'm lacking a certain toughness in my workouts that I used to have. It could be fatigue, it could be lack of interest in my local routes, it could be that my energy is elsewhere these days. I'll work through it, and at least I'm getting more consistent.

3 comments:

Steve DiMattia said...

The humidity's been a killer. Is there any truth to the consoling thought that running in serious humidity is good conditioning for less humid runs?

You did blog about board shorts, and I think we encouraged you to go speedo. I think you wisely declined, as I would.

Agricola said...

I guess it could be good for less humid weather -- you are definitely working very hard to get the O2 into your system so any work that you do to get it in there over and above the normal amount of work to breathe while working out should improve your fitness when the nastiness desists. It also could just sort of be like running with your head in a plastic bag!

Yah, no speedo, though should i don one for the tri in september? I might throw up a bit in my mouth and that would be bad!

Bennu Runner said...

The weather this summer may also have a lingering affect. Way too much rain. Feels like summer only started last week. How do people live in the Northwest?