It's a Dry Heat...

Ok, anyone who's been to Arizona or come within 300 miles of this state has heard this phrase. However, I'm pretty sure that the first person to say this was not running 12 miles at 4:30am on a Saturday while their friends and family lay in a cozy bed in a comfortable 74 degree air conditioned house. This sets the stage for this past Saturdays run. Jeff, my running buddy, and I set out for our usual Saturday "long run". Most would stop us right there and say "12 miles", but couple that with Arizona heat and you have a 1:1 battle with Mother Nature. In order to win Round 1 with Mother Nature one has to get up and be ready to rumble at 4:30...that's AM, where it is a cool 83 degrees (according to my trucks therm). The first 6 miles were not too bad by dawns light. I don't care how many times I see it, the site of sunrise over Camelback mountain is worth getting out of bed. Like a prize fighter in between rounds, mile 6 (the turnaround) was a park that offered a chance to refill the water bottles, run through the sprinklers and recharge. Any official would have ruled the first 6 rounds to me and Jeff. However, the sun was up now and the direct sun was going to pose a serious challenge on the back 6. You can pack all the water you want, but there comes a point during an Arizona summer run where your body hits that "wall". For Jeff, that wall came somewhere between mile 9 and 10, and I was not far behind hitting it around mile 11. Like any good runner, we muscled our way through that wall and finished. Although the pace was a little slower than first anticipated, we finished 12 miles in 90+ degree heat....advantage us! It's gonna be a long summer...... Activity Route: -- Elev. Avg: 1247 ft Location: Phoenix, AZ Elev. Gain: +0 ft Date: 06/21/08 Up/Downhill: [+131/-131] Time: 05:42 AM Difficulty: 2.6 / 5.0 Performance Distance: 12.00 miles Time: 2:00:23 Speed: 6.0 mph Pace: 10' 02 /mi Heart Rate: 150 bpm (Avg) Calories: 1808 172 bpm (Peak) Map Elevation (ft) Pace (min/mile) Heart Rate (bpm) Heart Rate Zones Zone Range (bpm) Time In Zone Distance In Zone Zone 5 169 - 188 0h 01m 1% 0.15 mi Zone 4 150 - 169 1h 33m 77% 9.70 mi Zone 3 132 - 150 0h 26m 22% 3.40 mi Zone 2 113 - 132 0h 08m 7% 0.50 mi Zone 1 94 - 113 0h 05m 4% 0.17 mi (none) out of range 0h 00m 0% 0.02 mi Splits Mile Pace (min/mile) Speed (mph) Heart Rate Elev Gain actual +/- avg actual +/- avg 1 9' 21 -0' 41 6.4 +0.4 141 +10 ft 2 9' 25 -0' 37 6.4 +0.4 152 -7 ft 3 9' 30 -0' 32 6.3 +0.3 153 +10 ft 4 9' 28 -0' 34 6.3 +0.3 154 -3 ft 5 10' 05 +0' 03 6.0 -0.0 152 +3 ft 6 9' 08 -0' 54 6.6 +0.6 154 +16 ft 7 16' 23 +6' 21 3.7 -2.3 135 -16 ft 8 1' 28 -8' 34 40.8 +34.8 151 0 ft 9 10' 01 -0' 01 6.0 +0.0 151 -3 ft 10 11' 02 +1' 00 5.4 -0.6 147 +3 ft 11 10' 30 +0' 28 5.7 -0.3 143 -10 ft 12 9' 30 -0' 32 6.3 +0.3 161 +4 ft end 9' 22 -0' 40 6.4 +0.4 163 -7 ft Versus average of 10' 02 min/mile

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