Sloth-ing Along

TriGirlJulie

Hey Coach, My long Thursday run was great for the 1st hour and fifteen in Zone 1.  I was only able to survive another 23 minutes out of 45 in Zone 2.  I'm running by pace and just could not sustain Z2 in this humidity.  I forced myself to stay at my Z2 pace and I paid the price for it by having to walk. My RPE was off the charts just by increasing my pace to Z2. I was well hydrated and well nourished pre run and took along an electrolyte drink, S-tab. Hammer gel and some FIZZ tabs to re-fill my water bottle en route. The only thing I can think of other than the obvious impact of heat/humidity, is that I was carrying too much from fatigue from the previous days workout.  I don't feel hot.  I wear arm coolers and a hat with a neck flap, but  I am literally dripping wet after such an effort. Anyway, it's disheartening! I can cruise along quite comfortably when I'm on my treadmill, in fact I feel too slow when I'm inside.

Mark Maurer

Hi Julie, I'm not a coach but the heat and humidity make me slow down a lot. There is a lot of information on the wiki about heat but here is a link to a video Coach P put together. Here's the link to the wiki page.

There's also a calculator there to tell you how to adjust your pace. Good luck.

TriGirlJulie

Thanks Mark,
I appreciate your time. I will check those links.
I recently moved from San Francisco to Florida. Talk about an environmental impact! I won a lottery spot to Kona this year, so I guess the Kona gods have me right where I'm suppose to be to get ready for the race.

Mark Maurer

Yeah, I can imagine the climate change impact of that move. I live in Washington state and I was in Florida last fall and did a run and the heat and humidity hit me hard. Good luck. It does sound like you're in the place you need to be from a training perspective.