Dirty Sock prep: 60 humid minutes on the treadmill

Today's run (treadmill): 5.5 miles

The rain was coming down hard at 6:30 AM and the frequent thunder told me that the storm was close. I hoped that it would move through quickly so I could go out for a long run later in the morning. A check on weather.com showed no hope for a letup so I changed my plans in favor of an indoor workout.

If I had gone to Bethpage State Park I would have targeted 8 miles, but I knew that spending that much time on a treadmill would make me a candidate for the insane asylum. I decided that I would run for 60 minutes, including some time for warm-up and cool down. At the start, the temperature in the guest room seemed pleasant, and I had my trusty water bottle to help keep me hydrated. At the ten minute mark I still felt relatively dry and I wondered how long I would go until the sweating began.

By the time I reached the 15 minute mark I felt like I was in a sauna and I questioned whether I could really go the full 60 minutes. By 20:00 I noted that I was 1/3 my planned time and my running shorts were just about soaked through with sweat. I didn't bother wearing a shirt because I could get away without one indoors. I regretted that I'd forgotten to wear a HRM. It would have been interesting to record my physical response to the heat and humidity over the duration of my run.

I kept drinking water and by the 30 minute/halfway mark I knew that I'd be okay for 30 more. Passing 40 minutes was a welcome milestone and I reached five miles a little before the 50 minute mark. I continued for another 5 minutes and then dropped my pace and finished with a five minute cool down at around 11 minutes per mile.

I wasn't delirious when I stepped off the treadmill but I was sweating profusely and I made a beeline to the refrigerator and grabbed some Gatorade G2.  The very humid conditions, heat and 60 minutes of motion were exactly what I was after today. The conditions at the Dirty Sock 10K are usually brutal, not unlike today's. It occurred to me near the end of my run that I must be in decent shape to have gone through today's workout without quitting or collapsing in exhaustion afterward. I'm hoping that hard workouts like the ones this weekend will yield a good result on race day.