It’s getting hot. Like my previous life in Biloxi, Austin and North Carolina hot. I’m lucky in that heat and humidity doesn’t bother me as much as other people but it’s still pretty miserable.
Always a good sign when the forecast includes a cactus in Vermont.
In an effort to get my sh*t back together, I decided that I had to attempt my workout yesterday, despite cactus-friendly temperature. I had a firm talk with myself on the way down to the bike path about focusing on tempo EFFORT and form, no matter what the pace turned out to be. It worked. I did 30 minutes at tempo effort, which turned out to be 6:51 pace and not all that far off my continuous effort goal right now. The cool down was gruesome and I required a nap but I’m glad I got this in and looking forward to my second workout this week.
A rare sports bra only run. Somehow managed to coordinate it with my headband, so style points for that.
Finally, to help out a fellow runner in keeping her hair off her face until the heat breaks, the winner of the Sweaty Bands giveaway is Laurel who is already a Sweaty Bands devotee. In her comment, Laurel said she never runs without them and shared this great photo on Instagram as well.
Rocking a wide Sweaty Band in her winning entry
How are you staying cool this week? What’s your tactic for talking yourself through workouts in tough weather conditions?
Runner Under Pressure 
YAYAYAY!!!! Thanks so much, Sarah! I so excited! 🙂
You mentioned effort as being your goal (as opposed to pace) when it is really hot out. Does the importance of effort over pace hold true in other less than ideal situations? Life has a tendency to get in the way if I do not get runs or workouts in at 5:30am. Over the years I have become pretty good at early workouts, however there is no doubt that I can hold a faster pace, lift more, and take shorter rest breaks during later workouts. If you hold weather and routes equal, the same perceived effort that gets me a comfortable 8:35-45 pace later in the day frequently results in a pace between 9:00-20 during early runs. Does grinding through runs at a slower pace in non-ideal conditions pay dividends once you get to run in better circumstances or should I push harder to make the early run paces match what I know I can do when I am more awake?
I’m a huge advocate of using effort as a guide in general, not just in bad conditions and especially on easy runs. The only time your pace matters is during workouts and even then, effort still works as intervals are intended to make tempo pace feel easier and tempo pace is intended to make marathon pace easier (gross simplification obviously!). Pace is helpful because it’s more measurable than effort but if we’re really dialed in to effort, that’s actually a better approximation of where you are on any given day. In your case, I think you’ll be much better off long term running your morning runs on effort since it seems like the pace differs at time of day for you. Relying on effort as a metric is extremely hard mentally and requires a lot of confidence but is also an excellent way to really train with your body, rather than fighting against it.
Thanks. It is good to know I was not being delusional when trying to convince myself that runs where my pace didn’t match up with my effort were still productive and worthwhile.