August bust

August was such a bust. Between my husband traveling for work and the weather insisting on being so hot and humid, very few miles have ensued. On top of that, we took a few day trips to visit friends,  enjoyed some out of town family visiting, and I decided I needed to repaint and redecorate my daughter's room. Whew! It has been busy, but it has also been an enjoyable end to the summer.
That said, I am truly looking forward to a more productive running schedule in September as soon as the kids start school. I'm a little worried about my next race on September 10th in Wisconsin. I really haven't trained as much as I normally would, and I feel a bit out of shape from all the parties, trips and lack of normal dieting. I know I will finish, but it won't be a strong finish, I'm afraid. I've got a week and a half to get some miles in, so I will see what I can do. I ran a 10-miler about a week and a half ago, so I at least have that to help gauge my readiness. I'm predicting one slow 13 mile race in my future. No big deal. There are much worse things to stress over.
So, back to the heat. I feel like mostly the entire month of August has been one giant heat oppressive pocket of yuck. Taking a first step out my front door at 7 or 8 am and getting knocked in the face with a sweaty ball of humidity was just too much to take. I kept remembering back to one run I had earlier in the summer on an uncommonly hot and humid June day. I got about two miles in to that run and thought I was going to pass out. I felt dizzy and slow and in fact, I think I had to stop and take two walk breaks. Not worth risking my health, so I ditched that run after about 2.5 miles. Now fast forward to August where the entire month basically felt like that. 

Post-run, red-faced, sweaty and goofy!

The few times I managed to run were ok, but each time I arrived back at home extremely red-faced and dripping with major sweat. What I should have done on the non-running days was fall back on an exercise dvd or at the very least a walk with the kids. I opted to do other projects instead (hence the room painting, and building a new fire pit!). 

Fire pit project. A surprise birthday gift for my husband.

Even though I shouldn't plan to run too much this last week or so before the race, I'm trying to get in as many runs as I can. I want to keep them short and at a slow/comfortable pace so as not to end up injured. No need to taper when most of the month has been one giant taper. I guess it is ok to let my body rest from time to time, but I'm ready to get back in the game. 
Speaking of games, I really enjoyed watching the Olympic Games in Rio this year. I loved watching the women's and men's marathons along with some of the shorter running events. Usain Bolt was a lot of fun to watch, and I was completely bummed out that Meb Keflezighi struggled so much through his marathon run, and I was pleased that my fave girl Shalane Flanagan finished as the top American woman in 6th place. And props to Galen Rupp for his medal-winning performance. It was inspiring to watch these runners. They really make it look so easy, but that is because of all the hours of hard work and training behind those events. Amazing.
The rest of the Olympics were fun to watch, too. The swimming and gymnastics events were exciting, and it was especially lovely this year to see my oldest daughter really get in to cheering for the United States in all the events. It was the first time she really understood what was going on, and that was cool to watch, too. 
So onward we march to September. I'm ready for the return to routine and to work diligently on organizing my house. I really let things slide last year while I was so work focused. I'm ready to jump back in to my various volunteering roles, and recommit to healthy meal prep. And of course get back to hitting the pavement in a big way.