return void;

It’s been two weeks since I wrote anything and three weeks since I posted my pace charts. I’m getting lazier by the week when it comes to writing a training log entry. I’m working on something to simplify my workload, but it’s rather foreign to me, so there’s a steep learning curve.

Anyways, the weeks have been getting hotter by the day. I’ve been comparing the tempuratures registered by my car’s thermometer when I get in after riding in the vanpool and it went from the low 90’s to the upper 90’s, and now it’s been breaking over 100oF everyday. The heat is getting oppressive. After about a mile, every step is sweat dripping agony. I worked hard to maintain my pace under ever increasing distances but it’s growing harder and harder to even move.

I read and interesting article on NY Times about how people in the north have been dealing with the heat and it’s rather comical. Of particular note is the following quote:

On June 7, over 4,000 women ran the New York Mini 10-K race in Central Park. When the race began at 9 a.m., it was 71 degrees and the humidity was 78 percent. The winning time, 32 minutes 43 seconds, by Hilda Kibet, was the slowest in a decade.

“From the beginning, my legs were not really moving,” Ms. Kibet told The New York Times.

That same day in similar weather and humidity, in Cambridge, Md., nearly 1,400 athletes raced in the Eagle Man Half Ironman — a 1.2-mile swim, a 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1-mile run. Among them was Amy Roth, 32, the director of corporate partnerships at the Whitney Museum in Manhattan. She had trained hard, but the run, in particular, was difficult in the intense heat.

“I felt like I was dragging along but I couldn’t move any faster,” Ms. Roth said.

Still, she ran at a mile pace of 8:07.

“There were very fast people, very good athletes, who were walking, who just couldn’t do it,” she said.

Afterward, some posted comments, agonizing over their sluggish times, on Slowtwitch.com. “You could see the neuroses: ‘Oh, my God, am I getting slower? What does this mean?’ ” Ms. Roth said.

The next day, 190 professional cyclists started the Philadelphia International Championship, a 156-mile race. It was 79 degrees at 9 a.m. start, and 94 degrees when the last cyclist finished in mid-afternoon. About half of the competitors dropped out. The winning time, 6:14:47, by Matti Breschel of Team CSC, based in the Netherlands, was nearly a half hour slower than last year’s time, when it was cooler and drier.

I can’t help but say these people are a) ill-prepared for a possible weather scenario, in the summer, and b) are just whining and looking for an excuse. Don’t get me wrong, when your body runs hotter than you’re used to, it can be grueling to do much of anything, much less run a race. This seems to be an egregious case, especially the 10K-ers, of pinning the blame on heat and not poor training.

I also fiddled with the Garmin on 30 June 2008 by accidentally deleting a lap while a workout was in progress. This results in the workout being stopped. Doing this twice means I ended up with three GPX files that needed merging. GPSBabel and was more than happy to solve this problem for me (still had to remove the track divisions so they were all part of one track point collection).

Anyways, I ran the annual Too Hot Too Handle 5K again this year. It’s the third time so far with my previous times being 31:06 and 27:51. This year I obviously had a late start in preparation, what with the qualification exam and all. I have been working real hard to not run and hide from the heat and learn to thrive in it; I was sure I’d be ready this year.

Sunshine and I headed out a little early so she could get some coffee while I picked up some batteries for the camera. About half-way to the venue, I realized I had left my bib on the dining table and we didn’t have enough time to turn around and pick it up. I figured I couldn’t possibly be the first person to forget a bib, so we forged ahead. I was right; they had a form to fill out. It actually worked out for the best because I was able to go to the end of the chip table, where there was no one trying to get the chip of such a high bib number, and snag my chip replacement in a hurry.

They decided to line up the 15K crowd with the rest of us 5K-ers, which meant there was surely going to be a strange split at about 1.5 miles. I wanted to try and push myself the best I could to beat last year’s time but I realized that might not happen with the mere 2 months of training. I was right again; about a mile into an 8:30 pace, I was huffing and puffing. My legs were stiff and my chest was already tired.

Not to disappoint, there was a redirection for the 5K route to go up a hill into the neighborhoods. Great, this was all I needed. My legs weren’t going to be able to handle a ton of hills and the first hill was brutal (as you can tell from the elevation chart). I walked it with great pride and a lack of knowledge as to whether this would be the last hill. It was and I was able to coast down for a while. I was really tired near the end of 2 miles. I had stopped to walk briefly too many times but I knew I had to just suck it up and finish strong. I finished with an official time of 28:31, just 40 seconds off last year (or about 13 seconds per mile). Not the greatest, but good considering. At least it was better than Keep Austin Weird and now I know I am catching back up to last year’s performance.

Sunshine and I enjoyed some freebees. I picked up another free Brooks shirt for being decked out in Brooks gear. I also enjoyed another beer; Stampede beer has now offered up free beer at 2 events I’ve attended and I always love to partake in free booze. We took some great pictures and I hope to get the photo publishing aspect to my site working soon.

I just wish I could mentally push through pain like this man.