ajthomas wrote:
I drop my son off for practice at 3:30 and then do a little run around Spring Valley (W Houston) everyday. It was 112 heat index yesterday. My run was a run walk. My pace was marathon pace +2 Min. It was, in a word, terrible. But in ways I cannot quite explain, I am simply addicted to the challenge that running in extreme environments provides.Yeah, it was identical up here in Dallas, yesterday (and again today...forecast is 115 heat index). We just really don't have much of a choice. Its not any better at 7am. Its cooler sure....but, the air is saturated, which is just as (or more) miserable. Frankly, I prefer the hotter and less saturated conditions in the afternoon. The evaporation seems to more than make up for the higher air-temp.
ajthomas wrote:
One thing I caution people is that if you go too hard in the heat you can really put yourself in a hole. I did a some half mile repeats last week when it was merely 95 and have paid the consequences since. Because I expected it to be hard, I didn't calibrate properly. Hard was probably more like as hard as I possibly could have gone. Which is always dumb in the middle to the week.Yeah, I gave up hard efforts outside in the heat. I think its counter productive to drop the pace as much as is needed for the heat...and as you say overdoing it in the heat really digs a very deep hole, that I can only climb out of with a full-day completely off. So, I do all of those on the TM. I think it actually works better that way, because I can run faster and recover better. Plus, the controlled conditions are nice for comparing efforts/tracking progress.
Then I just use outside running for easy/long running.