90º run

Today's exercise:

45-minute run

followed by 15-minutes of alternating running/walking

Whew, it's hot. Seattle is forecasted to reach its hottest recorded temperature ever tomorrow; today is just a couple degrees cooler than the 100º supposedly to come. I don't know why I thought it would be a good idea to head out for my short run for the week at 1:00 in the afternoon -- somehow I thought it might be cooler than waiting 'til 5:00 (my other option for getting it done).

I suspected I was being foolhardy by running in the extreme heat, so I made a compromise with myself: I'd wear my heart rate monitor and slow to a walk every time I went over 165 beats per minute (that's the threshold for my personal "zone 4," the highest heart rate range in which I work out). I was surprised by how long it took for that to happen -- to be honest, I felt so tired so quickly that I was hoping my heart rate would shoot to 165 in the first couple of miles and I'd have to keep my promise to myself and walk a bit to bring it back down. Instead, I slogged along for 45 grueling minutes in the blistering heat before I saw the magic number appear on my watch. I spent the last 15 minutes alternating between running and walking, speeding up every time my heart rate dipped to 144 (the lower end of my zone 2 -- that's the zone where I'm most efficient). More on the zones later.

I'm so happy to be done. We're fresh out of G2 gatorade, so I told myself that a liter of bubbly water and a handful of potato chips would replenish the salt I lost during the epic sweatfest that followed the run. Wonder if that's true?