Seriously hot run, but I never quit!

I've had to step back the amount of jogging that I do because it is just too damn hot during the day and in the mornings and evenings it seems as though every single Chicago resident with legs is on the running trails. I think I would rather suffer a bit with the heat than deal with massive crowds so I suffer a bit and just deal with the heat. This of course means that my run times are going to suffer as well as I am, but that's the tradeoff and I am willing to take it.

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We've got some pretty amazing running trails in Chicago but I am going to call bullcrap on the above photo. There is no way that whoever took that picture was able to have the place all to themselves. They must have Photochopped about 400 people out of the image.

In the middle of the day you can get a trail like this to yourself but it is painfully hot. This is reflected in my times because I feel as though I am quite a bit faster than this but if I push too much in this heat, I am not going to be able to run the full 5k.

I am running really slow here but that is because I have to. My heart rate is still going really high even though I am probably doing more of an old-man-shuffle than a run but hey! At least I am the only person that I normally see at all on the trail.

I want to get to the point where at this speed I will be completely in zone 3 or aerobic rather than spending most of my time in zone 4 or anaerobic. My pace did get a bit faster after the start but much of this is probably the time it takes for me to cross the street to get to the trails. Once you are on the trails on the lakeside, there aren't many situations where you would be forced to stop. I did want to quit several times and my bandana and the rest of my outfit were completely soaked by the time I was done. I lost a lot of waterweight during this and I drank all of my cold water while I was doing it as well. I think it was a liter or maybe a liter and half. It started out cold, it was not cold by the end.

I don't like these per km paces but it motivates me because I remained consistent in my pace even though I was not often looking at my watch. This also gives me more confidence because I feel that if I keep up this level of cardio fitness, this could mean that I will be able to shave at least 30 seconds off the per km pace when things cool down without exerting any more than I already am. The humidity is around 80% this time of year and in the middle of the day it is close to 90 degrees Fahrenheit basically every single afternoon.

The temp drops a lot in the evening but that is when the masses are on the trail and a lot of them are kind of jerks.

We do what we can. I'm happy with this, even though I do not do it very often I do, do it as much as I can.