Kiawah Half Training Week 2

Oh, October, I love you! After muddling through some of the worst heat and humidity I've ever run in, we finally got a wee bit of fall here with lower temps (for the most part) and lower humidity. While we still had some days on the more humid side (thanks, Thursday speedwork at 94% humidity!), it's generally much more bearable. 

During the past two weeks I've had pretty much my best runs ever since I started running, and certainly my best ones in almost almost two years. I finally saw improvements from all of the hard work I've been putting in while running through exhaustion, stress, and asthma/sinus/allergy sickness. 

Workout summary 

• Monday: Off
• Tuesday: Easy run - 7.10 miles (7:55 pace)
• Wednesday: Barre
• Thursday: Speed work - 7.01 miles (6x800s with WU, CD and recoveries)
• Friday: Off 
• Saturday:
  • Family bike ride - 4 miles
  • Easy run - 5.02 miles (8:17 pace)
• Sunday: Long, slow run - 10.01 miles (8:53 pace) 

Tuesday was definitely a distance/pace PR on an easy 7-mile run. The temps were perfect and the humidity was really low. And my easy pace that day was sub-8 minute miles (what?!). I couldn't believe how fast I was moving and how easy it felt. This is what happens when both the humidity and temps are a bit lower. More days like this would be great. 

Thursday's speedwork was a little tougher with the higher humidity (about 95%), but according to my coach, you can still tell my legs are stronger. I did 6x800s with 400 recoveries (slogs) in between plus a warm up and cool down. My 800 splits were 6:58, 6:57, 7:03, 7:04, 7:11, 6:58, which was right around my pace target of 7:00, but I'm sure I would have been faster in lower humidity because my lungs definitely felt this. But it was my first speedwork in a few months, so I guess I can't complain. 

Saturday morning we did a family bike ride to the coffee shop and then in the evening, I ran an easy 5. Easy pace is definitely picking up!

Sunday I ran my longest run since March and my first double digit run of this training season. It was cooler in the morning, but the humidity was a little higher (in the 90s), so I opted to wait a little to go out. I'm not sure if that was a good or bad decision. It was in the mid-70s, with humidity also in the mid-70s and a dew point of 65 (which is still in the difficult to very difficult range).

I approached this run with caution because of the temps and since it was my longest run in months. My breathing was fine thanks to the slightly lower humidity and slower pace, but I was boiling in my own sweat. My normal run route has practically zero shade, so it can get a little steamy. It ended up being a decent run, though, and when I wasn't out running in it, the weather was actually beautiful. 

I missed a lot of barre classes this week since the schedule was modified on Monday because of the hurricane and I couldn't make any of the class times. Then on Friday, I had to take Meadow to Columbia for radiation, so that shot my Friday. At least I got one barre class in!

I can only hope the stars start aligning for me during races soon, so I can get an official record of improvement. Star alignment is a tall order for me because the slightest change in humidity can really send my asthma over the edge. The change in humidity from 72% on Tuesday morning to 95% on Thursday morning caused my asthma to slow my pace despite similar temperatures both days (mid-60s). But if the weather holds out for me come race day, I'm hoping I'll get some long awaited (and long overdue) PRs. 

I'm linking up with HoHoRuns and MissSippi Piddlin'  for their Weekly Wrap post. You can check out all of this week's posts here.