Is It Speedy Weather?

All summer I have repeated over and over to the girls I coach that heat slows you down and to not be concerned about pace.  And even though I said it, not sure *I* listened to myself - case in point, last Sunday.  FAIL. 

You can find a million articles online about heat and its effects on your body.  But, in general, the ideal temperature is viewed (depending on the source) as being about 55 deg F.  Once you hit about 85 deg F, you're looking at as much as 10% degradation in performance.  Using myself as a study case... my goal pace last Sunday was 9:20... it was 85 degrees out (maybe a little more at the end), which would put me at 10:16.  I ran a 10:18 min/mile average pace.  Hmmmmmmm... Interesting.

Anyhow, I didn't write this to make excuses for my poor tanked performance this past Sunday, but rather, to scream my excitement that Texas is actually making an attempt at fall weather, as of today (yes, it was 103 yesterday).  I have a 15k race tomorrow morning (15ks are popular in this area because it's 9.3 miles around White Rock Lake, our most popular running trail).  And here is the weather prediction:

So, I do believe I will be testing out the heat theory tomorrow.  Won't be ideal, but this will be as good as I can expect in this great state that somehow mimics the surface of the sun.

Oh?  I just did a race last weekend?  Yeah, well, there's a reason this blog is called RACING it off.  I know I have a problem!

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