Feeling a Little Bad Ass

Yup, that is how I am feeling about my run this morning.  Sure, there may have been a little insane and some stupid mixed in, but this morning's run also had a heaping cup full 'o bad ass.

Last night, Johnny, me and some good friends when to see The Zac Brown Band at Summerfest in Milwaukee (they were completely amazing too BTW).  Unfortunately, we didn't stroll back into our house until just after 2 am.  That meant I wasn't hitting the zzzzs until around 2:30.

Now, it has been insanely hot here lately.  Seriously.  Right now it is 102 degrees, feels like 108.  Gah.  The only escape in the last week and a half has been very early mornings.  Even then, I have been looking at upper 70s - if not mid 80s - and crazy humid.

Given that I didn't walk through the door until after 2 am, however, I knew I would not be setting the alarm for 4:30 or 5:00 am.  (Come on people, I am dedicated to my running, but not THAT dedicated).  :)

So, I got up at 8:00.  It was 86 degrees, full sun and feels like 103 degrees according to Accuweather.*  Good Lord.  I thought about heading downstairs to the treadmill, but that sounded much worse than a sweaty slow slog.  So I grabbed my Garmin, dressed minimally and hit the streets.  I decided I'd just run slow and slog out the hour I had on tap.

I started off feeling very sluggish, looked at my watch and wouldn't you know I was running under a 9 minute/mile pace.  Nice.  My heart rate got jacked pretty quickly, but I felt great.  I ran the first 30 minutes, then stopped and refilled my water bottles.  I also dumped a water bottle over my head only to realize that the warm water didn't help and was not going to evaporate.  Oh well.

I got going again and I'm not going to lie - it was brutally hot.  So I shed my singlet and pushed on for another 30 minutes.  Now - I don't like baring my overly white belly to the public, but today, if you passed by, well - deal with it.

Ended up running 6.8 miles in an hour (8:50 pace - 8:49 according to my Garmin).

So why is this badass you ask?

1. Dude, I ran in crazy ridiculously hot weather AND hit my prescribed training paces without dying.  Training hard in the heat without death (and without feeling like death) is badass.
2. I was brave enough to run in my sports bra and shorts only.  Forget vanity - having a good run was more important.  Behold my bare white tummy because I am sweating people.  This was bold for me.  Boldness is badass.
3. I felt pretty darn good.  I honestly can't believe how acclimated I feel to the heat.  NEVER before have I been okay running in the heat.  Now I do.  Heat acclimation is badass.
4. Typically at this point in training (first 4 weeks of marathon training and Capitol Mile training), I am hurting.  Sore hammies, tired, sore legs.  People I feel fabulous.  Fabulous is, of course, very badass.

So those are my random thoughts from this morning.  What sort of badassness did you do today?  :)

* When I got home, it said 101.  No need to split hairs though, whatever it was, it was brutal.