hot hot heat

Summer smoothie- almond milk, hemp protein powder, spinach, banana, topped with chia, carob, + raw cocao nibs

It feels like Vancouver has taken all the summer we’ve been missing for the past few weeks and crammed it into 2 days. Not that I’m complaining! Sunshine, I missed you. But it’s made for some tough runs. Running when it’s hot is HARD. Since I knew I would be missing Tuesday’s team speed sesh with Amelia and Alan due to an Ultimate game (my team needed me, right Andrea?), I tried to get in a speedwork run on my own. For some reason I chose immediately after I had eaten to do this, and the hottest time of the day. Good job, Carolyn.

07/06/2010 Route

I mapped out a quick 6k ish route, and set out to alternate 5 min easy with 5 min hard- I tried to keep my ‘hard’ pace somewhere around 4:30/km, and then not worry about pace for the ‘easy’ minutes. It’s amazing how your body can trick you on runs like this- at times my ‘easy’ and ‘hard’ paces were shockingly similar. Lucky for me, the short route only allowed for a few hard intervals, as I was about ready to pass out by the time I got to Waterloo.

Distance: 6.66km (appropriate, as it was hotter than Hades). Time: 33:42. Av pace: 5:03/km. Sweat factor: extreme.

I also made some study break vegan, whole grain cookies! Who doesn’t love baking when it’s 30 degrees out? These were a bit of an experiment using bananas, maple syrup, pb, and buckwheat pancake mix, and came out a little dense, but still hit the spot.

I had another battle with the heat tonight at Wednesday night run club, where Evelyn, Amelia and I tackeled 10k around the sea wall. Thank goodness for running buddies- ladies, I would have abandoned ship and jumped in False Creek to cool off without you there! This run was pretty brutal. We made it back up to broadway keeled over and panting (wait, was that just me?) but we made it! No stats for this run because I accidentally left my garmin on as we walked to sushi after the run, oopsie. FYI, it’s approx 2.55 km from Running Room to Blue Star on 4th Ave.

The heat is supposed to continue for the rest of the week! Here’s hoping my body adapts before Sunday’s long run?