Texas is HOT!

Geesh, I was hot when I got here yesterday but holy mackerel it is hotter than heck here even at 7am.

After my glorious training day Sunday I had a rest day conveniently scheduled to coincide with my travel to Dallas. Then today I had my long run scheduled. This of course meant packing all kinds of things to accomodate this training activity.

Being the planner that I am and anticipating that Texas would be hot I called ahead to discover that the hotel had an indoor running track. Sweet! I wouldn't have to run outside in the sun nor would I have to spend nearly 2 hours on a hamster wheel (aka treadmill for new readers). Well I didn't check hard enough because it turns out the indoor running track was 1/22nd of a mile which meant to do my 9 mile run would require 198 laps. OMG - There was no freakin way I was running 198 laps, I'd pass out from dizziness. Luckily they had an outdoor 1/4 mile jogging path so I decided I'd use that and just start really early to try to avoid the heat.

So I got all my gear prepared which is quite a process when you're away from home. Vaseline for the feet, check. Fresh battery for the MP3 player, check. Gu and Sport Beans, check. Bottles to mix my GU20, check. Fuel Belt, check. And the list goes on and on.

Woke up and had a bagel with some pb & j and then headed out. The sun was barely up but it was already much warmer than I am used to. I hit the gym for 10 min to warm up on the stationary bike and then headed out to the jogging path.

Thankfully it was very overcast and I rarely saw the sun but it was already about 77 at 7:30am when I started my first mile. I kept a good pace for the first 4 miles taking in water and nutrition right on schedule but around the 5.5 mile mark I started having some GI issues and had to make a pit stop. Ugh, the heat was taking it's toll. I took a few more Endurolytes (gel-caps with sodium and electrolytes) and continued on.

The back half of the loop was shaded which was lucky because my mile 7 the skies had cleared and it was sunny. The temp felt to be about the low 80s. I just focused on staying strong and running instead of walking and adjusted my pace a bit to accomodate for the heat/GI stuff.

Finally hit mile 9 and headed for another pit stop. UGH! All told it took me 1:53 min to finish the 9 miles which was just about exactly what I was expecting pace wise.

I headed back to my room where I filled a laundry bag with ice for an ice bath.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH - What sadistic athlete invented the ice bath I'd like to know??? It sucked initially but it felt so good after a while.

Tomorrow is a fun fast swim after I fly back from Dallas and then I'm off to Coeur d'Alene for Ironman weekend - WOO HOO!!!!