Training in the HEAT!

All the talk on Southern California’s twittersphere the last couple days was about the weather.. more importantly.. the HEAT WAVE! The weatherpeople say it’s caused by a high pressure system that keeps warm air from moving around or something. I’m not a meteorologist. All I know is that IT’S HOT. Our annual Santa Ana winds haven’t even kicked into high gear yet.. which means it’ll get even HOTTER as we move into fall. Luckily for me, I’ve got a treadmill and a trainer indoors (and a bunch of Spinervals videos Minh got for me). I HATE training outside in “less than perfect” weather. I get whiney and disheartened and always end up cutting the session short (unless I’m with a group, then I just have to suck it up and keep the whining in my head.. one good reason to train with others.. unfortunately.. I do most of my training alone).

Anyway.. This past weekend was the first of the year for training in HOT weather (we had a rather mild summer). I hit the park for a tempo run after work on Friday. The goal was to average 9:00 min/mile over four miles (i.e. one lap around the park). My shins were KILLING me pretty much right from the start, but I decided to stick it out. Rather than a tempo run (which should mean going at a constant pace for most of the distance), I ended up doing something more like intervals to average my pace out to 9:00 min/mile. My shins were killing me and I needed to stop and walk more than usual, which meant the “running” portions just had to be that much faster. Hit the goal though, which is good, and iced the shins for 20 minutes before showering.

Towards the end of the run, I had to average <8:00 min/mile to meet my goal time…

Minh built the Xtracycle back up, so we’re trying to use it more for local errands and stuff. We also have more lights now, so I feel safer riding at night. After we got cleaned up, we rode to El Pollo Loco for dinner. Stuck to the sidewalks because we didn’t want to have to cross the street twice for no reason (El Pollo Loco is on the same side of the street as the neighborhood, but going against traffic). The new Queso Crunch Burrito with Jalapenos is good. I opted for chicken instead of steak, just to be a little bit healthier.

Taking the Xtracycle out for dinner..

Saturday, I headed down to Rock’n’Road Cyclery for an intermediate road ride with the Rock’n’Road Divas. They host a ride the last Saturday of the month, and it alternates between mountain and road, beginner and intermediate. It wasn’t too hot when we started off, but it got hotter as the morning progressed. I was able to keep up pretty well at the beginning, but got dropped the last few miles back to the store. I would catch up at the lights, but then they would just be faster getting up to speed… that and they were showing one of the new girls how to do pacelines, so they were gaining distance on me. I was trying to catch up on my own.. hit 22mph with the wind and still couldn’t catch them. It was a good time though.

Conditions were good for a morning ride on Saturday

Stopped for a photo op when we entered Turtle Rock/Shady Canyon..

Stats from the Diva Ride.. not bad..

After the ride, I stopped by the Traveland Farmer’s Market, since it was on my way home. I read online that they sell Pappardelle’s Pasta there, so I wanted to check it out… THEY DO!!! I picked up 1/2 lb of Rosemary Garlic Linguini and 1/2 lb of Whole Wheat Chipotle Lime Mafaldine. There weren’t a whole lot of other booths there, so I didn’t stick around to browse.

Pappardelle's in OC.. now there's really NO reason to go back to Seattle..

Sunday had a trail run on the books, but the idea failed due to record heat, so we stayed indoors. Minh suggested running later in the evening, but he never mentioned it again, knowing that I really didn’t want to go. Hopefully the heat subsides as predicted. Sounds like it’s a good opportunity to spend more time in the pool, though.