Running/Swimming: Southern Humidity Bites!

It's a dreary, rainy afternoon at Shop Good and I thought I'd use the opportunity to shock you all with a rare sight - two posts from me in two days! What a treat! I'm not promising much, I may have used all of my creativity and humor up on the last post. But I'll see what I can do.

My alarm went off at 6:00 this morning and I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out why I had set it so early. And then I remembered that I had to run today and wouldn't have time until late tonight unless I ran this morning. After staying up until midnight-ish, I was in no mood to run, but I somehow rolled out of bed, got dressed and drove to the park. I was excited that the sun wasn't out because I thought I had a better chance of getting to run in cool weather if I beat the sun. I was about halfway right. It wasn't hot, but that dang humidity kicked me squarely in the face!

I have always lived in the south, so humidity usually doesn't phase me. I often don't even notice that the air is so thick you could cut it with a knife. It's one of the few blessings God gave southerners (to balance out the curse of possessing an accent that makes you sound uneducated and ignorant to Yankee snobs see, I am an equal opportunity insulter). I had checked the thermometer in my car before I got out and it said that the temperature was 77 degrees. Perfect running weather. 95 percent humidity, however, is not! Instead of gasping for air I was gulping it, and within the first 1/2 mile my skin was all sticky and clammy. Gross! Of course I had planned on sweating, but this was different. I don't even know how to describe it. Nasty is pretty accurate.

Anyway, today was a 3-mile day, which was no problem. It's a little harder running outside than on a treadmill, in my opinion, so I'm doing all my running days outside this week to get used to it so that the run on Saturday isn't such a big deal. I stopped at around the 1.5 mile mark to get a drink of water, something I don't usually do. I like to push all the way through and gulp an entire liter down at the end. But the crazy thing was that after I took that quick break (maybe a minute or so), I finished the 3 miles in my best time yet, even factoring in the minute break! Go figure! I guess if I want to go faster I could allow myself a break at about the half way point. Not sure if I'd rather do that, though, or gut it out. I'll have to think on that one. Maybe I just need better motivation. Like this...