October 17, 2023 - The Weather Changes, The Paces Change

It finally happened. October 16th we finally experienced our first cool fall front in South Florida. Lows in the mid 60s and highs in the mid 70s. Even more exciting, low humidity by our standards...in the mid 50% range. It was wonderful. It is wonderful today. A warm up returns shortly, but these are a glorious few days and the warm up doesn't appear to bring us back to the mid-summer heat of last week.

And with that weather change, my running paces instantly changed, too. A promising development as CIM quickly approaches. Mondays are recovery days from my Sunday long run. Mondays almost always include a double, a really really easy run in the morning followed by a still easy but more conventionally easy effort run in the afternoon for a total of about 12 miles. These runs are heart rate based to make sure I actually stay easy. The morning heart rate band is super low with really no bottom end. I feel like I basically can't run too slow in this particular run. Anything goes. The afternoon run has a very broad band from very low effort to an easy yet effortful pace. 

For my afternoon run, I actually had to force some pace to get into the heart rate range. Probably not a great idea. I probably should have just run by rate of perceived exertion for the first time in cooler weather. That kind of weather is like jet fuel the first time you hit it after training through a South Florida summer. But I stuck to my guns and stuck to my heart rate range. I force myself to do it on the high end even when it means running at a pace that feels so very slow. I felt I should do it on the low end, as well. 

My pace on the afternoon run was a good 45 seconds per mile faster than a week ago. At a heart rate 10 beats lower than a week ago. This was such an encouraging hour of running. I've felt stuck in the mud for a good long while. A feeling that I was doing the work, putting in the effort, and just not seeing any improvement at all. It made me question my training and consider alternatives. It made me question if age had caught up and improvement just wasn't going to happen anymore. It made me question going to Sacramento for the California International Marathon at all. But it seems the improvements were there, were happening, just buried under heat stress and the deleterious effects of high humidity on running. It is a reminder to trust the process (to quote that old, banal truism.)

Deep South Florida summers become a drag. As much as I enjoy hot and humid weather, by late September I'm ready for warm and somewhat less humid weather from time to time. And this year's heat has been particularly deep and long lasting. This cool front has acted as a magic elixir of joy, both for running and just life in general. I'll doubt my training dozens of times again between today and CIM race day. But for these few days, I expect to feel quite positive about things.

Today I feel better.