Friday, June 29, 2012

The heat....oh...the heat


June hasn’t been the best of months for me for running.  I’ve been out of my routine and had multiple guests in the house every weekend.  It has been tough to get back into things.  Not to mention the 90 -100 degree heat that keeps rolling in every other day. 

 Heat just makes me tired.  I don’t want to do anything when it is this hot outside.  I had to pump myself up to go to the grocery story yesterday because I was dreading unloading the groceries in the heat.   I had anxiety about walking those 10 feet a few times back and forth to my car just to bring the groceries into the house.  Mainly because I’m a sweater.  I sweat A LOT.  I know you have heard this before from some people, but I truly believe that I’m different and am a freak of sweat nature.  I don’t glisten or glow, I drip.  Not just during exercise either.  I can break into a full on sweat during a meeting, a stressful situation, if I meet a really hot guy (Sorry Dave!  But if it makes you feel better, I broke out into a sweat 6 years ago!) or just walking to my car.  I wear black most days and most people just think I’m fashionably challenged or depressed, whereas my real friends and family know that I’m trying to cover up the inevitable sweat that will descend upon me at some point in the day.  Classy, right?  This ultimately means that I ruin many a decent outfits, my makeup or have to shower twice a day during these fun summer months. 

 It also means that I’m in a permanent state of dehydration.  I am constantly playing catch up to hydrate.  When I go for a run, I lose a few pounds in water.  Not good.  Although the girly narcissistic side of me always thinks ‘Helllllz YEA!’ when I see those few lbs missing on the scale right after a run.  The smart side of me knows that I’m really dehydrated.  We all have different symptoms of dehydration, but these are mine: Crankiness, Heart pounding, Fatigue, Calf/Leg cramps, Headaches and lack of desire to run (what a vicious cycle that last one is!).

 I’ve got little advice for myself during this time of year.  Some would say to run inside in the A/C, but I know that that my races will be outside and I’m ultimately doing a disservice to myself by not acclimating to the weather.  My only thought is to drink, drink, drink and then inevitably sweat, sweat, sweat while running slow, slow, slow.  The slow part being the most important.  There is no need to get crazy and push myself pace wise right now.  There is no need to beat myself up if I don’t make another PR in the next couple of races.  My only need right now is to train consistently and not get injured.  And I’m pretty sure that dehydrated beef jerky muscles make for an easy injury!  We’ve all snapped into a Slim Jim before and no part of that process is pretty.

So, when you see me walking around dressed in all black, I swear I’m not depressed…I’m just sweating.  Please say hello and tell me to go drink some more water!

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