Start time: 07/18/06, 7:30am
Location: Arlington Boulevard Trail
Distance: 4 miles
Run:Walk ratio: 6:1
Average pace: 9:50min/mile

Knowing that the DC area is in a super-scorcher heatwave at the moment, I wisely decided yesterday that I would not be running with the Pacers Tuesday Night group at 7pm. Ultra-hot + hills = dead Greg on the side of the trail. So, instead I went running before work. Still quite nasty out, but not as bad as it would’ve been after work.

I fiddled with my Garmin 301 this morning and set it for intervals to see how that worked out. It does a good job, but the one frustrating thing is that when I download the data it gives me only the breakdowns for the 6min and 1min laps, not the mile-laps that I’ve set it to do otherwise. Hmmmm. I think what I’ll just have to do if I need something to beep intervals at me and I want to use the Garmin is clip my regular watch around my water belt and let it handle the intervals while the Garmin does my mile-lap measurements.

Anyway, I did glance at the Garmin as I hit each mile or so (it helps to have a route you already know) and while I started to slow down a bit in miles 3-4, it was still a lot more consistent this morning than I’d been in a very long time out on my own. A much more graceful series of splits; if I had to guess I think it was something like 9:30, 9:30, 9:45, 10:30. That last mile I was feeling super overheated and made the conscious decision to slow down a little bit. Honestly, it was the hottest I’ve felt while running in a long while. An ice cold shower afterwards felt nothing short of heavenly.

If I run again before the weekend (which I’d like to) and if it’s still nasty out, it’ll be at the gym on a treadmill. Between the heat and “red” air-quality issues (my throat feels a little raw now, although nothing like a couple of years ago when I stupidly ran in the morning of a “purple” air quality day) it just seems stupid to do this again, even if I got up even earlier to do so. Thankfully the heat’s supposed drop a bit on Saturday and Sunday, which is good for our poor Marine Corps Marathon runners who have a 16-miler scheduled. (Good thing it’s also time for the pace slowdown, plus a 6am start time.)