The Dog Days

August in coastal North Carolina. Damn near intolerable humidity-an invisible wet blanket in the sky. Runs become slogs, exercises in survival. Pace is almost irrelevant. Shorts, socks, shoes are soaked half way into runs. Yes-the dog days of summer are here once again.

Sunday I ran 75 minutes, mostly on the trails of the Carolina Beach State Park. The last few miles I felt like I was barely moving. By the time I got done my pulse was racing-close to 180. I comforted myself somewhat by the fact that at least I wasn't training for a fall marathon or ultra this year. And reached out with some words of encouragement on social media to many of my friends in the local running community who are several weeks into their respective marathon training plans.

Got up early Tuesday and ran the 8.4+ mile Copas Road loop in Shallotte from my Dad's house. Enjoyable run, and did beat some of the worst heat by getting out there at 6:30am as the sun was just beginning to rise. And was blessed with beautiful views out over the marshes and Shallotte river near where she empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

Threw in 6 x 150 in/ and out striders in the last two miles of the run. Which did get the heart rate real elevated again. Want to get in 40 miles this week, which will be my first 40 mile week since early June. Spent some time yesterday reviewing my training log from the first half of 2017. Think I may have tapped somewhat unwittingly into a formula for success-built off the Jack Daniels workouts in his 5-15k plan, combined with long runs I was doing at the time to prepare to pace the Wrightsville Beach marathon, and help Amie train for her own WB marathon race.

Instead of doing 90 minute long runs as called for in the plan, I was doing 17, 18, 20 milers, at a pace say a good minute and a half or more below my marathon pace. This I did during the first 2 months of the JD plan, after which my long runs returned to more "normal" lengths or time spent running.

Who knows right?  But interesting food for thought.  And we are always learning...