The early afternoon heat and sunshine gave way to cloud-cover by late afternoon today. With cracking thunder in the distance, the skies looked ominous. Heavy rain-showers bypassed my house but light drizzle began to fall. There was a slight breeze tempting me to give up my treadmill tempo run in favor of running outside.
At around 5PM, I took off going west on Thompson Peak Parkway. It was still hot outside but it felt good to run in the soft rain. As I turned left to go south on Pima Road, I picked up my pace to near 7:15 per mile going downhill. It was getting hotter and the cloud-cover was thinning but I felt pretty good. I went left again on Legacy after running about 4 miles to return back towards my house. This is where the heat started to get to me. The rest of the course was uphill and slightly against the wind. It had stopped raining and it was super-humid. I was toasty hot. My pace slowed down as I jogged back uphill. I finished the 10k (6.22 miles) at an average pace of around 7:50 per mile. I’m glad I ran outside instead of the treadmill at The Village.
Tomorrow is rest day. Saturday is long run day in the heat. I will start very early to escape the midday sun on Saturday!