Motivation

So, I don't think I've talked about this here yet, but I've signed up for a half marathon in September! I think it's slightly crazy, considering I was not exercising in any way, shape or form when I signed up (in April), so I was starting from nothing. 21 km is a long way to go!

For reasons I can't talk about, April was a complete write-off for training, but I seem to be doing ok now. I have no illusions about actually running the whole thing. My goal is to train regularly (about three times per week), getting my mileage as high as I can go without hurting myself, and then run/walk the race on the day. It will be doubly difficult as I'm pretty much restricted to treadmill training until September, although I am planning to do some outside runs when I'm on vacation in a week or so.

Can I say that it's really difficult to train right now though? The room I run in does have air conditioning, but given that it's not running unless I'm in the room and the room has large, east facing windows, its often hotter inside than outside. An engineer at work told me that the average temperature for June this year was 50 degrees C!!! I believe it, even if the information I find on weather on the internet doesn't support that. (Just fyi, Weather.com says it's 39 degrees here today, and BBC is actually predicting 38 and rain (I don't know what they're thinking. I've only seen rain here two or three times in two years, and today doesn't look like the day for it.))

So, anyone that's ever lived in a super-hot climate, how does one stay motivated to run when it is so warm? I did 45 minutes on the treadmill this morning, and managed to soak through my moisture-wicking gear and had sweat running down my back and arms. I've never actually experienced that before, even in steamy Ottawa summers. There are some articles on Runner's World, but given that the sweat isn't evaporating, I don't know how much use a lot of that advice will help (a lot of advice revolves around wet hats or ice in a bandana around the neck).