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Running, heat, childhood and me

I am not a summer person.  I love the cold.  I’m originally from Pennsylvania and I don’t think I miss the cold winters, but I do remember the hot summers.  We would get into the 90s and we had no air conditioning.  I just had to sit and melt.  I learned then that heat was not my friend.  I can remember trying to sleep in my room at night with the window open and listening to the trucks on a far off highway… and sweating!  Fast forward to more recent times.  Before I began running, I would never go out in the summer.  The most I’d be outside was just enough to walk to my car.  I hated the heat – and I still do.  I love the fall.  I love the winter.  I love the spring.  I hate summer (which only begins tomorrow).

I started my run yesterday… 3:00 in the afternoon.  Five days in a row.  Four days of 100+ heat index.  The real temperature was in the mid 90s.

I got about 100 yards and turned back, went home, got on my headsets and decided to walk.

Honestly, until this week I’d only run 4 times in all of June.  So I am feeling good about my running at this point, heat included.  I ran my mountain for the second week in a row last Sunday and ran 4 miles in my neighborhood Monday – Wednesday.  Yesterday I ended up doing an even amount of running and walking.  My legs were shot and I only had 5 hours of sleep the night before.

On to a quick thought about the heat index.  Does anyone know how they decide what that is?  As a runner who hits the streets at 3:00 in the afternoon, I have a feeling that the heat coming up from the asphalt is about 100 degrees hotter then that index taken from some field in the shade.  Just sayin’.

Moving forward.  It was a the best week for me in about 2 months.  I have no idea why and I have no idea why the past two months have been so difficult.  I’m not going to question it anymore, I’m just glad to be feeling better.  Today is Friday and we have the whole weekend ahead of us.

Life is good better!

Tom

12 thoughts on “Running, heat, childhood and me”

  1. I remember moving from Connecticut to North Carolina when I was 15. It was August, and when we got off the plane it was 104 degrees and humid. I wasn’t happy about the move as it was, but at that point I turned to my parents and yelled, “You literally moved us to Hell!”

    I don’t miss summers in the South.

    Reply

    • I understand fully. I’m the same way. Though when I moved to the South I was so excited that there was actually air conditioning in school and stores. Even our home was air conditioned – not that my dad would turn it on. 🙂

      Reply

  2. Good work, 3:00 seems like the peak of heat. I always try to just remind myself that the sweat is good….I feel like it is a detox! Glad to see you are up and running, despite the darn heat.

    Reply

  3. I wish I could run at a different time, but honestly about 8 months of the year 3:00 works well. It is just the summer. At least I’m not training for a marathon like I was last year!

    Reply

  4. You brought back some memories for me. My secret to beating the Pennsylvania heat was to sit on the cold concrete floor of my closet. Our house was on a hill, so my room was halfway underground and always cooler as a result. And even the humid heat was more tolerable as a kid, when you could get away with wearing shorts and a t-shirt every day in summer. Also, we moved from the Philippines to Pennsylvania, so Pennsylvania seemed mild in comparison. 🙂

    Reply

    • You brought back memories to me too! It is a shame all the woods and things are gone and the neighborhood is so changed, but I guess that was a long, long time ago in a land far, far away. 🙂

      Reply

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