Whining About Summer

Unlike the rest of the country, this is the worst time of the year in southern Arizona. The sun barely peaks over the horizon, and the heat is slamming you into the ground. It's regularly been at 90 degrees or above at dawn for the past couple of days. The water in pools is like bath water, so swimming saps the energy out of you. Riding a bike is tolerable for two hours after dawn until the road starts wafting waves of heat and the sun burns your skin with it's heat. Running, you start out with no energy and you heart rate goes up as you get slower and slower. As a way of distracting myself, I have decided to rate my workouts on a misery index from one to ten. One being the workout is "easy and pleasant" and ten being "get me an ambulance".

1. Thursday run-four seven minutes intervals at level four or freaking hard. I would give it an eight or "I really don't want to be doing this". The temperature was 90+ degrees, I had no energy and when I finally got into the supposed heart rate zone it really hurt.

2. Sunday four hour bike ride at a moderate hard pace. Also an eight. My route went uphill and then went really uphill. I kept up a good pace until near the point of turn around when I started to get light-headed and weak. This is not a good thing when you are 28 miles from home and it's getting really hot. Luckily the route back was mostly downhill. Any uphill by this time was making me really cranky. I was mostly in survival mode and to hell with speed. I picked up the pace when I got close to home because I wanted to get the hell out the heat.

3. Monday 90 minute bike ride with hard intervals and swim-seven or "this sucks". I had to give up on the swim because I was still wasted from the bike ride Sunday.

4. Two hour "run". This was an eight. I had to stop at every water fountain I could find. And every restroom. It was one of those days. My guts were cramping and sweat was pouring down my legs and I got slower and slower. I like running north-south because there are more shadows, at least in the early morning. Unfortunately, I have to go uphill coming back. I think the vultures were eyeing me.

Sooner or later the high pressure system that parks over the southwest for weeks on end is going to move on. It will cool down eventually to 100. In October. Ironman training is supposed to hard and to test your resolve. I just hope I don't melt first.