Heat Wave

"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves" ~ Henry David Thoreau 


 I think that all endurance athletes like to feel like they're doing epic things. Myself included. The longer, hotter, harder, more difficult, the better. My problem, however is that I tend to do epic things, and then get carried away...and then bad things come out of it.  Example(s): 11 mile run the day after NCAA nationals=decimate already strained IT band. 10k,5k,1500 @ conference meet=decimate knee. These are extremes but you get the idea. This is a pattern that is seen quite often in my life.  


Luckily enough nothing that drastic happened this time (hopefully this means me getting smarter???? maybe...) Anyways, yesterday as you may know here in Wisconsin it was like...a bajillion degrees (93) plus then you have the heat index of  100 and then some. Heat is always worse in Wisconsin because we can't have warm weather without 99% humidity too.  I didn't think the heat would be as much of a factor at 8AM...It was. 


I headed out on my bike after PT...I ended up riding a total of 26 miles which really isn't that far if you think about it....but in 100+ heat I guess it is. By the time I was done I was dripping with sweat so much that I  left wet spots wherever I stood. gross. but epic nonetheless. 


I went to deliver pizzas after that at my glorious college-kid job. At first I was just tired but then my stomach started hurting, then my head, then my whole body. Heatsickness anyone? So there I am at Domino's chugging water and powerade and vitamin water and eating watermelon. Even now, just to think about it is pathetic. I'm guessing that the majority of my tips yesterday came from just how pathetic and exhausted and hot I looked. Delivering pizzas that just came out of a 500 degree oven in 100 degree is not necessarily the best thing to cure heatsickness. 


After a decent night's sleep my headache has finally gone away but I'm still feeling the residual effects. This week's lesson: Do NOT take heat advisories lightly. Just because you can bike 26 miles in 100 degree weather does not necessarily mean you should. I think I'll swim tonight. 


Also I'm going shoe shopping this week. It's kind of my way of mentally getting back in the game a bit. Now that I've started running again I need to reset everything....Starting with my feet. I'm absolutely not ready to give up my wonderful Brooks Glycerin. But I think I'm going to be getting a second pair as well. I'd really  like to get a pair of minimalist shoes to do some leg-muscle strengthening. However, I'm still clueless as to which ones would be best for me of IF they would even be good for me so I'm trusting the people at the running shoe place to help me out. 


And finally this weekend I get to try back to back days of running. Fingers Crossed!