Night Train
Heat remains my nemesis. I've been dealing with it a little better recently. Stopping to wring out your shirt a few times during a run helps you keep going. It's when you get to the point that your shorts are entirely drenched and stuck to your thighs that you start thinking "I've had enough of this." And unfortunately, you can't just pull off your shorts and wring them out in public.
For some reason, the city park I frequently run through keeps its latrines locked overnight, and when I say "overnight", I mean about 7:00 PM to 9:00 AM. Why? Who are they trying to keep out of the bathroom? Do they think by locking it you'll no longer need to go? Where do they want you to go instead?
Now that school has started, I've had to train in the evenings. The air temperature is warmer, but there are a few advantages. For one, it's usually less humid in the evening compared to the morning, and as the run goes on, the air gets cooler, rather than getting warmer the whole time when you run in the morning.
It's a tight balance trying to wait until the air has cooled off, but finish before it gets dark (which I don't like). Running at night wouldn't be such a problem if I lived in a large, well-lit city, but I don't. Soon, however, the moon will be in a phase such that the evening hours get a lot of moonlight, and in the absence of city lights, it's bright enough to cast a shadow. That could make for some awesome runs.
Running continues to get slightly more effortless, and in the past week or so, my pace has generally increased slightly. It's hard to do an apples-to-apples comparison when you live in Hill Country, at least for any given run. But you can see general trends.
Now that I'm up to running six days a week, the distance added each week has dropped to the single digits, which is probably why the distance running each week doesn't seem as daunting; it's only a little more than the week prior.
It's nearly September. Only a few more weeks and things will start cooling down. With any luck, that means runs get faster, longer, and more fun.
June
