Running at my new place has not been going well. I used to have a mile and a quarter freshly mowed running path that was pastoral and soft on the feet and shins, and I’d run that every day.
Now I’m back on the road. My second time out I got lost, and what I’d planned as a 3 mile run turned into a 12 miler.
Once in a while I’ll go for a run and everything will just be wrong. Yesterday was one of those times. It was really hot, and I was sweating like a pig. Instead of gaining energy, it felt like it was being sucked out of me. I felt weak and dizzy, and my limbs were leaden. I was dying of thirst. My blood sugar was probably low, and I may have been flirting with heat stroke.
The problem was that I was in the middle of a 6 mile loop way out on a farm road.
No trees, no water, no shade. So, for about a mile I walked in the shimmering heat of the road, not feeling much better. At the top of a hill I started a shuffling jog, and, in a manner similar to something in Beau Geste, I staggered home where I consumed two glasses of water, 3 of my daughter’s juicy juices, all of her Scooby Doo fruit snacks, a pear and an apple.
Then I sat in the pool nursing another juicy juice.
Or bananas - supposedly high in potassium and other good stuff to help prevent those nasty muscle cramps and aches.
My husband is a letter carrier for the USPS and has a walking route (involving many houses with quite a few steps leading up to their front door), so that means that even in 90+ degree weather, he’s out there for 4 hours doing a fairly brisk walk combined with lots of stair climbing. Fortunately we now live on his delivery route, so should things get nasty he can quickly run home to restock his Gatorade, etc. My sympathy, Scylla - seeing him come home exhausted and nearly dehydrated, I know how tough the heat can be on someone who’s exerting himself.
I can’t imagine running in heat like that. But, I think where you live is a tad different from here. The humidity is so bad here that if you walk outside, you have to take a shower.
I walk 3 miles every day to work and back. There is no way in hell you could get me to run it, nevermind the fact that I am horribly out of shape.
Take it easy, Scylla, and drink lots of Gatorade or Powerade. Alternate with water. My dad works on rooftops and in boiler rooms, and I don’t think he could make it through the day without drinking something like that.
Where I live we have summer temps 85-105. I can go through a 50 oz. Camelback in 5 miles. I fill it with 1/3 ice and just water and its just barely enough.
When I used to run 12 miles at a pop in very hot and humid Taiwan, I would always chug a big glass of water right before starting out. Had more water waiting for me when I finished. Never a problem, and never had to pee either 'cause it all sweated out.
) like to hurt yourselves, and with a SMILE on your face as well.
