Wings of Mercury

My running has taken flight this week.  

Not run away.  

Grown wings.  

I now understand why athletes go to extreme places to train.  High altitudes.  High heat.  High humidity.

I can't speak for high altitude running but I do have plenty of experience with high heat and high humidity running.  It's really hard.  We've had several months of what felt like a never ending heat wave.  To add insult to injury, humidity always seemed to peak on Saturday mornings - right on time for the long runs.  

We have trained in some nasty stuff and my body has been pushed to its limit several times - more from the temperatures than the distances. 

Now the worst of the heat is gone and I feel like I have wings attached to my shoes and a jet pack on my back.  Ah-mazing!  

I'm guessing it's like training in the mountains and then coming down to the valley to race.  There's so much more oxygen down there that the difference must feel pretty awesome.  

That's how it's felt this week.  Last night, my third day of running in a row, I ran 10k in 62 minutes and it felt amazing from start to finish.  I should have been tired.  I should have been wilting by the end.  Instead I practically galloped home. 

During the worst of the heat, I would have paid a lot of money to make it go away.  Now that it's gone away on its own, I must admit I am grudgingly grateful for the conditioning it forced upon me.  

Some people I know avoid summer running.  They hardly do any running in June, July and August and, once the temperatures drop, they're back out again.  Other people avoid running in December, January and February because it's too cold. 

I'll run in anything.  

The brutal days make the beautiful ones glorious.  

It's fall folks!  The very best time of year to run. 

Yippee!!