Thankfully I got my long run in today before the heat kicked up .. it was actually pretty cool this morning when I headed out, I had a debate as to wear a tank top or a regular shirt when I got up, and the regular shirt won out. I probably would have been just fine with the tank top, but either way I made it through. I actually woke up at 5:28am thinking that it was a weekday and that I forgot to turn my alarm on .. it took a few minutes to realize that it was actually a Saturday.

I had 20 miles scheduled for today, and thanks to my trainer watch, I stayed right on pace by running it at about a 9:15/mile pace (which is ~10% slower than my goal pace for my next race). I took plenty of water with me in my fuel belt and even stopped for more while I passed local grocery store with an outside water dispenser.. the only problem with that is that the water was actually WARM when it came out of the spicket, which didn’t go down so good, but I took it anyway because I was really dehydrated. The water actually cooled down as the run went on .. it was strange.

I’m not sure how many times i’ve said it, but I really like the training plan I’m on now, I seem to be better focused on what i’m doing and surprisingly I can feel the difference already after only 2 weeks. The best part of the plan is that now Sunday is my day off from running after doing my long run on a Saturday, although i’ll fill in the void with a 10-15 mile bike ride as I slowly work up my bike mileage. Tomorrow is supposed to be real hot out, which probably means the morning will be pretty hot and humid also, so I want to get out first thing.. I find that i’ve also been drinking a lot of Gatorade lately, which isn’t a bad thing for . I’ve been trying to fight this chronic dehydration problem i’ve been having for months now, where I just don’t take enough fluids in… I’ve found that I feel better and recover faster when I’m hydrated, so it really does work.

The biggest highlight right now is that this week I start to kick the miles up a little more as I head into week 3 of the “endurance” mesocycle 1. I’m sill not doing a lot of speed related work yet, that comes in the next mesocycle… I guess we take the endurance and mix it with the speedwork, so those workouts should be real hard, but I do need it.

I can’t wait to rest tomorrow …