30K

Things finally went really well today!!! It was still hot, but the extra rest yesterday, better hydration, and maybe getting used to the heat made today much better.

It was 71F (22C) and 60% humidity when I started this morning. It felt really sticky to me - we're used to low humidity here. It's not going to be that hot today, because the monsoonal moisture came through last night and we're having a monsoon pattern for the next few days. That's great, but the nightly lows are not going to change much due to the cloud cover. It was overcast for much of my workout, though the sun did bake me a bit from 18-23km. By the time I finished, it was 81F (27C) and still 50% humidity. I'm surprised the weather didn't crush me today, but perhaps I'm getting used to it.

I drove to Liberty Park to work out, and decided to do six 5K loops from the N end of the park down to Garfield Ave and 600 E and back. I wanted frequent access to water, because my coach told me to drink more this time. The hydration experiment was a success - I drank 164 oz (4850 ml) of water/zipfizz (zipfizz is a very low calorie electrolyte replacement) and I actually weighed 1 lb (16 oz; 0.45kg) MORE when I got back then when I started! I guess that means I drank just a little too much, but it was close. Staying well-hydrated did mean 2 potty stops, but that was OK. It also meant a lot of stops to refill my three 8-oz water bottles. I filled them either from the fountain at the SE corner of the park or from a bottle I kept stashed in my car at the north end of the park.

Perhaps it was the hydration, or perhaps it was that I was feeling good today, but I was fast and consistent. My 5K splits were fantastic: 30:51, 30:49, 30:50, 30:59, 30:45, 31:03! Top that! Ha! (I admit to being slightly bummed that they weren't all sub-31, but hey, it was close).

My heart rate was a mystery, as my heart rate monitor was acting up. It does that when it gets too salty, which probably happened today due to the heat and humidity. When it appeared to be reading correctly, my HR was mostly in the high 140s-low 150s. I also took my HR manually when I stopped, and it was 148. I'd guess my average was high 140s.

Total: 3:05:17 for 6:11/km. Fastest 30km ever, except for the first 30km of the Mesquite Marathon, which was downhill a LOT. So this is my fastest FLAT 30K ever :).

Garmin data here.

***

I stopped for slightly extended periods (3-8 min???) twice, at 9K and just shy of 10K, because I ran into 1) Leah from the Wasatch Walkers, and stopped to talk to her for a few minutes, and 2) Donna from Bear Lake, who is interested in our club. She had read on the website that we were having a 5K race today at 8 am at Liberty Park, and she was looking for us. She saw me racewalking and stopped me to inquire about the race. I explained that we had rescheduled it for yesterday because more people could attend. She was happy to see us anyway, though, and she asked me a bunch of questions about racewalking; Leah came by shortly and I introduced her to Donna. Donna wanted a little RW lesson right then and there, and thankfully Leah volunteered to do it, because I was getting antsy to get back to my 30K again!

I got started again, and then my coach called me just shy of 12km to see how things were going. Great, coach :). Only let me finish my workout! I chatted with him a couple min and got going again.

I also saw many of the usual people at the park today. I thought I'd mention them since I do see some of the same people over and over. I only know the name of one of them, though. His name is Henry and he's probably in his 70s, but he is out there every day walking and he always says hi to me and yells some encouragement as we pass. The other people I see I have nicknamed :). There's the lean-forward walking guy, who walks with long arms and leaning forward, and always wears jeans, even today in the heat. There's the cool-as-a-cucumber runner who always wears a baseball cap, long pants and a jacket, even in the heat. There's the guy with matching hat and shirt (a red beret and red shirt the other day, and green baseball cap & shirt today) who walks his little beagle mix dog. There's the ponytail guy, who lives in the apartments at 1700S 600E and who walks his dog every morning. There are the 2 ladies who walk together every morning. There might be more...but now I don't remember.

My brain is mush now, and my legs are VERY tired. But I'm happy :).