I Am Prudent, The Sequel

It's funny how the heat index at 74 degrees and 82% humidity puts the "real feel" at 74 degrees. Now I know where the zero-point is, I guess. Still, 82% humidity is, I feel, a low figure. It might be true right NOW, but I'd swear it was higher for most of today's run.

10 miles on the docket, 6.7 run. I cut one loop of the park out of my run due to the overwhelming humidity. I didn't get the run in yesterday and this morning I waited until it stopped raining, then tookt he train up to the park to do three loops. Hah! It was raining by the time I got to the transfer from the R to the F, so I turned around and went home instead. Lucky so: I ran into some of my neighbors and got permission to bring my architect by their house so I can point out some features I will want to have built into my house, when all that happens. I'm finding I really like my neighbors here.

Anyway, by the time we were finished chatting, the rain had let up again and things were humid, but cool - perhaps 70 or 72 degrees. No breeze at all. I decided to just run up to the park and do two loops and back, which would also be 10 miles. I grabbed a large water bottle of HEED and set out.

I decided about halfway up the hill to the park that 10 miles wasn't going to happen today. I could SEE the air; never a good sign. By the time I got to the park, I was ready to turn around right there and cut things short to 3.4 miles. But while I stretched a bit and got my breathing under control, seeing the other runners sort of inspired me to continue. The next 3.3 miles were difficult in the visible humidity, but not exactly hard. I did take it easy and slowed to a walk three or four times as my lungs demanded. At one point I was having some real problems - it wasn't the asthma, more like air trapping...I've not quite experienced the sudden distress in breathing like that before. I wasn't particularly worried, I just stopped completely for a minute and let my breathing work itself out. It felt like.... well, like you would feel trying to gulp in air after you've been underwater for three minutes, only you didn't let all your air out first, only halfway. You're trying to get air IN, but the bad air is still in there keeping you from getting satisfying lungfuls. Only it wasn't like an asthmatic air-trapping thing, because it came and went quickly.

Anyway, I got the loop done and headed for home. The downhill was a blessed relief, but by this time the sun had decided to try to break out and the temperature ratcheted up five degrees in a hurry. Sweat was pouring off me and by the time I got home, my clothes and hair were quite damp and I'd drained my bottle of HEED - a good signal that cutting the run short today was probably the wise thing to do. Under less humid conitions, that bottle will last 10 miles easy.

Anyhow, I want to point out that it was ONLY my lungs I had a hard time with today. I did the rest of things right, including hydration, fueling, Enduralyte intake, foam rolling (to which I've added lint-rolling my shins), stretching, and icing the knees and drinking Recoverite after the run. The upshot is that my legs felt fine. In fact, better than fine, they performed well, never got very tense during my coughing, didn't tighten up during walk breaks, and generally played ball. And no pain. Aside from minor twinges on the inside and outside of knees that lasted less than 1/4 mile each, I had NO PAIN. Certainly no shin pain! And for that, I will say this run, though cut short, earns itself a "good" rating.

And now, I really must take a shower.