Wednesday, May 31, 2017

WWU - Forget the Calendar, Summer Has Arrived in Texas!

We bade goodbye to the last vestiges of spring temperatures on Thursday, when the the morning low was 63 degrees.  I am pretty confident that we won't be seeing anything close to that for a long time now, and while I knew enough to appreciate running in decent weather (for late May), it was also sad to realize that it was the last of those lower temps.

That particular run was good, not only for the weather, but also because I set out to run part of it without doing intervals, and I succeeded.  This is remarkable in that I attempted to do the same thing the previous week but felt terrible and abandoned that plan pretty quickly.  My goal is to work back up to running a 5K without stopping; not that I have any particular 5K race goals in mind, but honestly, it would make running a longer race distance easier if I could get beyond the initial crush of runners before beginning intervals. 

Just for comparison, it was 80 degrees with such high humidity that it felt like 85 when we ran two days later, on Saturday morning - and that was at 6:00 am!  That planned 5 - 6 mile run morphed into a 4 miler, thanks to the heat and no breeze.  Even though I run year-round, it still seems to take me some time to adjust when the weather gets extra hot and humid.  But I was fine with shortening the mileage - some days, it's not worth pushing through.

After the run, I got to enjoy some driveway time for the first time in months, which is another benefit of running a shorter distance.  We sat around, chatting and trying to stop sweating with the help of chilled washcloths and frozen pickle pops, before changing clothes and heading to Blue Baker, where we spent several hours laughing and having so much fun - since she was in town, Allie met us for breakfast and afterward, said that she understood why we spend so much time with our running group - we ARE fun!

I don't want to alarm you guys, but this was my breakfast at BB:
Fresh fruit - at a bakery.  Who DOES this??

Well, I had the fruit plus a side of bacon.  I've not gone completely off the rails!  But lately I've just been so full after breakfast on Saturdays that I decided to try something lighter for a change...and I felt much better.  I didn't even order a cinnamon twist to split with Jeff!  I can't promise that I'll be Miss Fruit-and-Bacon every week, and certainly not this coming Saturday, because I have a coupon for a free cupcake and I plan on using it, but I don't always need a bagel sandwich after running.

Yesterday Diane and I ran 4 miles, and it was only 70 degrees (with 100% humidity - yay).  I actually felt pretty good during the entire run, which tells me that I'm finally starting to adjust to summertime in Texas - too bad it lasts way longer than what the calendar says, but that's the price we pay for living here.  Ah well.

14 comments:

  1. Because of the heat and humidity (even here), it really is hard to run anything more Than a 5K in the summer. It's a good base to have though, it means you'll be ready for any impromptu 5Ks this summer!

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    1. Except for a July 4th race, there are zero 5K races locally until October - it's just too miserable for most people to want to race - but you're right, I will be ready!

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  2. It's raining here for the third day in a row - UGH!

    I'd like some of your heat.

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    1. Problem is that our heat comes with humidity - you really wouldn't like it for long...

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  3. We are having perfect weather right now and I am NOT taking it for granted. After all that rain and the heat/humidity that is to come, it's so nice to have a spell of temperate days. And the sun!

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    1. When you live with heat and humidity, you learn to relish those unexpected good weather days when it's normally not. Enjoy!

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  4. Oh I do remember the Texas summers. I never lived where the humidity was quite as high as where you live.

    Wow! So impressed with your fruit cup choice! Its always such a good feeling when we can listen to what our bodies are telling us we need AND we act on that!

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    1. Yes, acting on listening to my body is a good thing, and not always easy, but I have to say, I felt much better the rest of the day not having had all the food at BB for a change, LOL.

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  5. Aww, was this the first time Allie got to hang with your crew?

    I wonder if anyone can ever really be ready for that summer heat & humidity! Mentally or physically ready, lol.

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    1. She got to meet part of them a while back, but more people were there this go-round, and everyone was in fine form on Saturday!

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  6. I hear you, girl! I was so confused by the cooler temps in late May then BAM...hello SUMMER! Haha!

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  7. I just could never live in the south. We hit the 90s last month for a couple days (way unusual) and I thought about how you live in that heat LOL!

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  8. Yeah....I think the summer heat is here!!!

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