Dawg Days of Summer Training

The temperatures this week are being forecasted to hover near the 100 degree level. As a young adult with a sense of immortality it was not uncommon for myself to run in the midst of an afternoon on days with the temperatures this high. It was also not uncommon to be totally ignorant of hydration concerns at the time.

Fast forward a couple of decades and I possess no sense of immortality. The last thing I want to do is succumb to dehydration/heat exhaustion along a rural county road in the middle of a hot and humid summer afternoon.  The coolest part of the day by far is in the early morning hours.

I am by nature an early morning person.  However, I like to relax early in the morning.  Getting up at 5:30 am to run at 6:00 am is not generally a very fun thing to do.  If I am to train with any kind of intensity for the Miller's Mutual Mile Run on Wednesday July 21st, I need to get out and train most every day until then.  I was able to get up this morning and run 3/4 mile repeats ( three sets of three laps around the track) before it got warm.

I ran these repeats each at about an average of a 6:35 (six minute and thirty five second) pace.  I am not sure how I am going to get my pace down to 5:45 for the race, but I am going to try.  Never thought I see the day when a 6:35 / mile pace was not fast enough for myself.



"Dog Days" (Latin: diēs caniculārēs) are the hottest, most sultry days of summer. In the northern hemisphere, they usually fall between early July and early September. In the southern hemisphere they are usually between January and early March. The actual dates vary greatly from region to region, depending on latitude and climate. Dog Days can also define a time period or event that is very hot or stagnant, or marked by dull lack of progress. The name comes from the ancient belief that Sirius, also called the Dog Star, was somehow responsible for the hot weather.