It's that time of year again when the heat index rises to ridiculous values and you physically can't start a long run early enough to beat the heat. It's the time of year when you start to question why you run and the fact that "Running is Stupid" creeps into the forefront of your brain more often then not.
It's funny what a run some runs can do to you mentally.
Back in March I was on a runners high. I finished the Triple Crown during the Disney World Princess Half Marathon weekend (5k, 10k and half marathon back to back to back), I had a great 16 mile training run at an average pace of 13:50 (goal was 14:00), I ran a 19 mile training run with negative splits and finished with an average pace of 14:00 and feeling like I could concur the world. My speed work was right on target, my injuries weren't bothering me, I was hitting all my training runs and life couldn't get any better so yes I can run the Marine Corps Marathon, I can run the Dopey Challenge, let's do this thing.
That was March. That was when the temperature for my long runs was in the upper 40's and low 50's. That was that brief period of perfect running conditions.
Now it's July. The only way to get temps in the 40's in Houston might be to run inside a refrigerator. The last I checked they don't put treadmills inside refrigerators (if they did you might actually persuade me to run on one and I hate the treadmill)
Now I am slogging through my long runs at 3:30 in the morning with feels like temps in the upper 80' and low 90's even at 3:30 in the morning. The humidity is so high I can change my shirt 3 times and still be soaked, that water is flying off my running skirt when I move and you can ring puddles out of my socks. The last 2 weeks have been really rough mentally. My brain starts to question everything. My speed work sessions become impossibly slow and I can't even complete them - so I start to look at your training plan to see what is wrong. My last 2 long runs have been really hard to finish so I start to question my ability to run this marathon. I mean if I can barely make it through 15.5 miles now, how on earth am I going to get to 26.2. And my brain starts to say "Running is Stupid", why are you doing this?
Well "Suck it up Buttercup." Now is the time to remember that every drop of sweat in the miserable muggy summer weather will be worth it come October. Now is the time to remember that it's okay to slow down the pace and just get through it. That every slow mile will make me stronger and faster come October.
I decided to pull some old training data to look through for answers. I'm an engineer, numbers are my life. I realized I've spent a lot of time focusing on distance and pace and forgot to look at a couple other numbers. Heat and Humidity. Those numbers really do matter. I went back and looked at my runs from last summer and guess what - they sucked too. But last summer I let the fear and that heat and the voice in my head that says "Running is Stupid" win. I let that voice convince me that I needed to drop from the full marathon to the half marathon.
But those slow miserable soggy miles I ran last summer and the "fast" fun miles I ran this past winter have made me a stronger person and so to that voice I say "Suck it up Buttercup".
I went back even further in my training data and found my old Garmin from 2007. I wanted to see how my training for NYC compared since that is the race haunts me. What I found was inconsistent training, skipped runs and not enough long miles before the NYC Marathon. And what I found was hope. If I can do what I did in NYC on less than ideal training with a really bad day of race conditions, maybe I can do anything.
So it's time to stop whining and lace up my shoes and go hit the streets because I have a marathon to train for and the summer miles won't run themselves.
Now is the time to squash that voice saying "Running is Stupid" and replace it with the voice that says "Suck it up Buttercup" because that really is all you can do right now.
