Thursday, July 09, 2009

Not enjoying my runs

My travel back home was flawless.....okay, that was a joke. I was delayed an hour in Brussels, two hours in London, and missed my flight to Guam from Japan. The two things that went right were: I arrived safely (which is all that matters) and my luggage was not lost.

I'm enjoying every bit of my stay back home, except for the running part. Words that best describe every run so far include: disappointing, horrible, drenched, bonked, no energy, cancelled workout....I think you get the point. The humidity has been sucking my energy dry in every run. The temperature itself hasn't been too bad, high-70s to low-80s, but with the combination of about 77-80% humidity the realfeel temperature is about low to mid-90s. It may not sound too bad compared to many areas stateside. I think the problem is that my body is still accustomed to the Holland weather, which is excellent running conditions even in the Summer.

In my morning run today, I attempted a fartlek workout of 3 x 3-2-1 at approximately 5k effort. I threw in the towel after my first set. There was no possible way of completing the workout as I was breathing like I was running an all-out 800m. And I wasn't running that fast. My percentage of max HR almost reached 100%. Even when running very easy my HR is consistently at about 75-85%. I learned from my first run back on the island that is almost impossible to run for 60-70 minutes without taking in any fluids. Today, I took some money along with me and bought a gatorade at a gas station on my run back home. It definitely helped and prevented me from feeling like I bonked. I think for the time-being I'm just going to do easy running to put in the mileage. Hopefully the body will get used to the conditions very soon.

Thur: AM - 12M @ 7:15 pace; PM - 7M @ 6:57 pace
Wed: 11M @ 7:10 pace

3 comments:

MB said...

sounds like a case of acclimation, given time, frustrating as it is, you'll be fine back to your faster paces. Glad to hear the trip was safe; pretty impressive your luggage came right along.

About Nate said...

Wayne,

You are dealing with EXACTLY what hit me when I arrived here to Benning 7 June..it has been SO frickin difficult..I spend most of my training on the treadmill. Hang tough, cant wait to see you go under 2:30 in Berlin. I think you are capable of sub 2:20..I truly believe that..heart is far more important than talent in my book...go to my blog and watch the billy mills video..his PR going into that 10,000m for 5000m was 14:11..yet he ran 28:24 to win..heart over talent brother.

Nate

Wayne said...

Mark, Nate - thanks for the comments. There's no doubt that it's a case of acclimation. Nate - now I see what you were going through when you first arrived at Benning. I gotta tough it out.