The Long Road to Nowhere!

The Long Road to Nowhere

It was a typical summer day in Florida today: very hot & humid w/o a cloud in the sky, an afternoon of thunderstorms, followed up with more humidity, sun, and heat!

Heat down here is something you just deal with. Kinda like the cold winters in Chicago. With that said, I have no choice but to train in the heat. 

I've been down here about 15 years, and the heat STILL bothers me. It just zaps my energy. Feels like everything's in slow motion!

Health officials advise people to exercise early if they want to do so outside. I agree with that, but going for a run at the crack of dawn won't help my triathlon training:

Race starts at 7am;
Finish the swim at 8am;
Finish bike at 11am;
Start run at 11:10
Finish run at 2pm.

In other words, I'm running during the hottest time of the day. The WORST time of the day during a race.  The only way to get race ready is to simulate race conditions. And that means training in the noon time heat.

I will be honest: I HATE running in the heat. Hate is a strong word, but it's the truth! It's brutal and it sucks! Lol

The humidity here is so thick it can slap you in the face when you walk outside or get out of your car. There have been times I'd leave a store and my glasses would fog up it's so humid!

Kinda hard to look cool with fogged up glasses! Lol

I can't stress enough how much u dislike the heat, but sometimes you gotta do things you don't wanna do! 

Even though I'm not "training" for a couple weeks, I'm still working out to keep my fitness levels high. Truth be told, my running is behind schedule right now. With me having those back issues last month, I couldn't run, and the only way I can improve my running is to run, preferably outside.

So today I ran on Bayshore. In the heat. Not a cloud in the sky. It really did feel like a long road to nowhere!

I took these pics today, but they look identical to pics I took weeks ago. The only difference is it's about 20 degrees warmer today!

I ran as I always do in the beginning (on the grass:)






Running in the heat is dangerous. If a person is out in the heat, they should carry water with them, and I do. Water AND Gatorade to be exact. I always run with these, and I carry electrolyte tablets also:



I fill the bottles up about 3/4 and freeze overnight. That way I have plenty cold liquid on my run.

It's really hot out here, so I take my time. Again, i'm not training, so I'm not pushing it. I probably couldn't push it if I wanted to anyway actually...lol 

I'm about 45 minutes into the run and nothing has changed. It's still hot with no cloud cover:



It is what it is, so I just deal with it and keep plugging along. 

About halfway thru the run I get a little relief. I pass this residential area that has some big trees and WONDERFUL cloud cover! Lol



There was a very slight breeze, so that  helped me cool off a bit. 

A couple minutes later, I hit Ballast Pointe. There is a park on 1 side and a fishing pier on the other. Pretty nice place:





I thought about running to the end of the pier and snapping pics, but it was too damn hot to be playing around. If you seen 1 pier you've seen them all! Lol

I'm about an hour into my run now and I'm hesding back. I'm not very tired because I'm running slow and taking my time. I get to savor a little bit of shade 1 last time:



And just like that, I'm back into the heat and FINALLY a partly cloudy sky:



I really like how there are clouds up there, but they ain't nowhere near the sun! I mean WTF! Talk about a tease! Sometimes a little tease is ok, but this ain't the day! Lol

I still like Bayshore because I enjoy being near the water. Weren't many people out today because of the heat (big surprise) so I pretty much had the place to myself. I'm running along and see something I had never seen before. A school of baby stingrays!

 I just HAD to stop and take some pics:







There were about 30 of them total cruising along w/o a care in the world. The water looked darker than normal today, but not sure why. The oil spill hasn't affected Tampa Bay so who knows what's going on...

After taking these pics I resumed my run and tried to keep my mind off the heat.

All in all, I finished the 10 mile run in 1:56, with a 15 walk cooldown to get the lactic acid out my legs. After my run I got an oversize unbrella out of my car and relaxed while o drank more water and ate a Clif Bar.

All in all, it was a good run. It was hard, but if I want to be a good triathlete this is what I have to do! 

With that done, I can now enjoy my 3 day weekend! Tomorrow we're going to dust off the grill and have family over for a Memorial Day cookout: ribs, hamburgers, turkey burgers (for me!) hot dogs, ice cream, cookies, and baked beans. It's gonna be off the chain! Lol

I'm going to eat as much as I want. It's the holidays! I'll get back on my diet Monday. Well, maybe not, because if we have leftovers I'm gonna have to take care of them. Can't waste food!  Lol

Thanks for reading! Till next time, Peace!