DISNEY WINE & DINE + KIAWAH HALF TRAINING WEEK 5

Here I am - muddling through the humidity (again).

After a very brief reprieve from heat and humidity (at least by Charleston standards), it came back this week with a vengeance. The weekend was particularly nasty and I ended up having one of the worst asthma attacks of my life at the Turtle Trek 5K Beach Run on Saturday evening (complete with EMS and an ambulance). Good times. I'll save the rest of the story for the race recap post. 

Otherwise, I did manage to get 3 runs in, but only one barre workout and no yoga classes. Not the greatest week as far as workouts go for me, but it happens. 

Workout summary

• Tuesday:  Off
• Wednesday: Off
• Thursday: Easy run - 6.01 miles (8:49 pace), 81 degrees, 66% humidity (it felt cool!)
• Friday: Barre Cardio class
• Saturday: Turtle Trek 5K Beach Run - 3.1 miles (asthma attack pace), 92 degree heat index, humidity 78%
• Sunday: Long run - 8.02 miles (9:16 pace), 90 degree heat index, 84% humidity, dew point at 76 (gross)

Since I did last week's long run on Monday, that knocked my week a bit off schedule. Then on Tuesday I took Meadow Beagle to the oncologist to get the details on her cancer and the treatment plan. The specialist is a 2 hour drive from my house and I left at about 7 am, dropped her off around 9, went to work in a coffee shop, then picked her up at about 4:30 and didn't get home until after 6. It was a long day and I was exhausted. No workout for me. 

The good news for Meadow is that her cancer is in the fairly early stages. It hasn't spread past her nose, it's only on one side, and the oncologist thinks she'll respond very well to treatment. So, we have 4 weeks of daily radiation therapy coming up for her (that will be craziness for us) and I started her on some homeopathic treatments like cottage cheese and flaxseed oil. And now this dog is running around like I haven't seen her run around in a long time! Maybe we'll get a miracle for our Meadow. At the very least, I'm hoping the treatment shrinks her tumor significantly and gives her a good quality of life for a good long while. 

I planned for a barre workout on Wednesday plus a short run, but the day ended up being extremely busy and I didn't have time to get any workouts in at all. Wednesdays seem to be trending in that direction, so I'm shifting my workout schedule again so Wednesday is either my rest day or a barre or yoga day depending on my schedule. 

I'm also going to try to get back to running at least 4 days a week instead of 3 once the weather isn't so gross. To say I'm tired of this heat and humidity is quite an understatement. I am so unmotivated to go out and swim - I mean, run in this mess.  

After Saturday's asthma attack, I was very cautious on my run on Sunday. I went slower than I thought I needed to. The run was okay, even though it was much slower than last week's at the same distance. 

I don't think I'm sick right now, at least I don't feel like it, so I guess the asthma attack was just straight up humidity-triggered. I'm not having any sinus issues and my allergies seem okay as well, so hopefully I'll recover completely from Saturday without any additional interventions. 

Otherwise, I'm a bit frustrated since I started to run much better (I ran sub-8s easily last week!) and I was barely able to muster an 8:55 pace thanks to humidity and asthma. I think I'm getting faster. I should be getting faster since I've been consistently putting in miles, even through sickness, and there's no way I should still be running the same paces I was running as a brand new runner. But my speed is so inconsistent right now and I'm so sensitive to the slightest change in humidity that it makes it really hard to have any confidence at all. 

So I'll ask again...where is fall? Because I'm ready to see some real improvements from all this work I've been putting in and a drop in the temps is the only thing that will make that possible.

Anyone else about done with this summer nonsense?

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.