Hot Summer Days

Acclimating to the DC weather has been a work in progress. My wake up call was racing EagleMan – it was absolutely brutal. I drank 6 full water bottles on the run alone, never mind filling my hat with ice AND eating a cup of ice at every water station.

I think I could easily estimate that since we’ve moved here, 90% of the days have been 90 degrees or above. I learned this morning that this past month was the hottest June recorded worldwide. That is pretty insane, and scary. I receive weather bug alerts multiple times a day on my cell warning me to stay inside due to air quality and heat advisories. Last week I noticed a camera man from the news taping me run down the National Mall – it was hitting the 100’s that day and I am sure they aired footage that night with something along the lines of, “don’t be this crazy idiot, stay indoors.”

I simply cannot though – I need to train, plus, I like working out outside!

Before I head out the door, I load sunscreen onto my face, hands and shoulders, the three areas I burn easiest. There is a bottle of sunscreen sitting on the table next to the door just so I don’t forget! I’d pass on wearing a tank and opt to wear just a sports bra so just to remove one extra layer but I don’t for the very reason that I think I would get yelled at by the building I live in on my way out. Seriously, we don’t meet eye to eye : )

The other day I went for just over a 9 mile run along the Mt. Vernon Trail. I thought I was going to die from the heat. I kept a very decent pace but the entire run is in dead sunlight (as it seems all run paths here are). After a long stretch around the Roaches Run Waterfowl Sanctuary (gross name) that seems endless, I took cover under a tree for a few minutes. It was just so hot. I continued on but decided to turn around early, cutting the run short by a total of 10 minutes – no big deal. I was quickly running out of water and the path doesn’t have any fountains, so it was smartest to just turn myself around. On my way back, I stopped 3 more times to get shade coverage for just a minute each time. Even though it was brutally hot out and I was soaked in my own sweat at the end, I was happy and felt fantastic.

The new shoes are working out great, too. I’ve taken direction to powder my socks and glide my feet where I commonly get blisters. Haven’t experienced any pain yet, so that is good news on my end! Yay! My running shoes have been a size 7.5 since I can’t remember but they put me in a size 8 this time around. Maybe my big ol' feet just needed some extra room?

This weekend is our FIRST weekend in DC (outside of when Cork and Kyle came down), and we’re looking forward to exploring new places while getting some bike miles under our belts. I love weekends.