Hot Hot Hot!

After spending the weekend in San Francisco, I decided to take my new pair of Kinvaras out for an interval run on Tuesday. Good idea in theory, poor in execution.

I went to a paved trail after work so I wouldn't have to cross any traffic. I decided I was only doing 6-7 miles so no need for a handheld water bottle. Except it was in the 90s and very humid. Rookie mistake #1. I started my 1 mile warm up and it didn't feel too bad. "Maybe I have acclimated to this stuff." Idiot. I spent the last 4 days in San Francisco (60 degree temps, eating out, lots of walking but no running). I am not acclimated. Rookie mistake #2. I clipped off the first mile and then picked up the pace. My initial goal was 1/2 mile intervals at a sub-8 min/mi pace. I look down at my Garmin and I'm at 7:20 min/mi pace. Great! This feels fine, I'll shoot for 7:20s! Rookie mistake #3.

I made it through interval #1 and #2, somehow, maintaining my stupidly-foolish 7:20 pace. My rest intervals were obviously getting slower. Then interval #3, a 7:50 pace was all I could muster and #4 was 8:13. When I looked at my HR monitor, I was at 182 BPM running around 8 min/mi. How's that for performance decline?

After #4, I started to get a little light-headed so I made the first wise decision of the afternoon and skipped #5 and jogged back. Between the heat, humidity, and over-zealous intervals, my HR was in the 170s jogging at a 10 min/mi pace. I periodically stopped to walk and let my HR recover to the 140s before jogging again.

In retrospect, my 8 min/mi pace probably was reasonable and I should have stuck with it. If I had slowed my pace and carried some water, I probably wouldn't have spent the last two miles walk/jogging. Oh well, I seem to re-learn this lesson at least once a year. At least I was smart enough to throw in the towel when I did.