One of the most grueling months of my short running career has finally come to an end. It wasn’t the running that caused the month to be so challenging, it was the weather, which should come as no surprise—this is Texas, after all.
For August, the average high was 100.5°F, and the average low was 79°F. For 30 of the 31 days the high was >= 90°F, and for 22 days it was >= 100°F. For 16 days the low was >= 80°F. To me, that’s the single biggest issue I have with Texas summers—we don’t cool off at night. Now onto some running…
The rest of the summer hasn’t exactly been a piece of cake, but it wasn’t quite as bad as August. However, I did a heck of a lot of running on the treadmill during June and July. That all changed when I started training for the Rock ‘n’ Roll Denver Half Marathon the first week of August. I knew that since the race would be outside on the road, I needed to be running on the road, not inside on the treadmill. This change led to a couple of other changes: 1) I started getting up early to run before work, and 2) my average pace has gone up significantly (I tend to run at a faster pace on the treadmill, rather than raise the incline). Here are the stats for August:
I ran 22 out of 31 days in the month. Compared to July, I ran 15.9 more miles in August, and my average pace slowed by 4 seconds per mile. August is the 2nd month of 150+ miles running (the other was February of this year), and the 13th consecutive month of 100+ miles. I also went over 1000 miles for the year in early August.
Here’s a breakdown of how I spent my time running:
As you can see, the long run has returned in a big way. In the month, I did two 12 mile runs, an 11 mile run, and a 10 mile run.