110 Degrees

My car thermometer showed 110 at 5:45pm when I pulled into the parking lot where I was going to meet the other runners. It was going to be a hot run. Supposedly it was 113 today, meaning that it had "cooled" off to 110. Today's workout was a run over to A Mountain, run some reps and then back to the parking lot. Total mileage about 4.5 miles. Pain level.... much higher.

Starting with an easy jog we cross an overpass and then turn to run underneath and catch a path that goes along the lake. At that point we start 1 minute pickups at 5K pace. The majority of the club are male runners, much faster male runners and so I bring up the rear. It is challenging being the slowest runner of the group. I often feel that I'm like a little kid and one day when I get older and stronger I'll be able to run with the big kids. We run 4 pickups and then finish jogging over to A Mountain.

I found some information about A Mountain on the Web.

It was created by the Tempe Normal School class of 1918 was responsible for installing the first letter on Tempe Butte. When the school changed its name to Tempe State Teachers College in 1925, students retained one side of the "N" to form the stem of the "T." The school changed its name to Arizona State Teachers College, and in 1938, the letter "A" was installed on the butte. In 1952, a bomb blast destroyed the letter. The present "A" stands 60 feet tall and was built of reinforced steel and concrete in 1955.

Guarding the "A"
Each year, during the week leading up to the ASU vs. UofA football game, the Student Alumni Association coordinates the guarding of our beloved gold "A" from being painted by UofA students.

There is a sign heading up the hill that says Watch for Bobcat illuminating to the fact that wicked UofA students may come up the hill also.

Once we got halfway up the hill the real workout starts. Two weeks ago I ran 5 repeats at 20 seconds up the hill. Actually your supposed to bound up the hill. This week I ran 6 repeats for 25 seconds. I was hoping to find a picture on the web showing the actual hill but you'll just have to trust me that we are running up a steep section of it. We have a new member to our club named Josh. He's about 9 years old and after the 1st repeat he said he doesn't run hills. I told him yes, he does because he just did one and now he is a hill runner. I wanted to have his switch his "he can't" attitude to "he can" and he did. After each repeat I would ask him what his new statement was and we would high five as we said "I'm a hill runner!"

I was really low on water and had stole some of John's but when a fellow runner asked for some water I gladly gave both him and his son Josh water. After our hills we still had to run back to the parking lot with 2 more pickups with one pickup being for 2 minutes instead of the 1. After the last pickup the others were walking but I wanted to keep running. In my car I had cold water and Gatorade and I was on a mission to get it as fast as I could to reduce the pain level. I then gave up half my Gatorade to allow Jen to have some.

At 8pm when I climbed back into my car it was 107 degrees. The amazing thing about the run was it wasn't the heat I fretted about, it was the water. Yeah, it was hot but it just "was". Because I was hot and tired I forgot to complain about how hot it was. Oh and one more thing that kept me motivated is tomorrow is Friday and on Friday's I allow myself a chai tea!!

Another great hill workout!