Southern Summer

It's too damn hot

After spending the last several hours (days, really) beating my head against a wall here, I’ve decided to just be honest: I’m kind of at a loss for what to write about this week. After a fast-and-furious start to the summer and a few A-list performances from y’all, things have… slowed down. So I’ve decided to write about slowing down.

I’ve never spent a summer outside of the South, and while I maintain a certain Southern indignance about just how bad it gets here by late July, I feel pretty confident saying it’s tough everywhere. The days get hotter, the air gets stickier, and electrolytes become awfully hard to keep in your system when you spend every day so ambiently sweaty.

But! What you have lots of in the summertime (assuming you’re still a college kid and not an old fart like me) is time. Even with those long, toilsome hours barista-ing to work around¹, it’s a lot easier to get the miles in when you don’t have the classes and extracurriculars and general shenanigans of a college semester to work around. This is true even if you’re an old fart like me — the days are longer, a 9-5 makes doubles easy to plan, and it’s generally a lot easier to roll out of bed for a 6 AM run when it’s 75 degrees and not 25.

Now, while I have no high-performance accolades to back up any advice I give, I’ve learned a lot via “being very out of shape for the last 3 summers².” So if you, like me, find yourself suffering through the warmer months, here’s the best I’ve got:

Slow the Hell Down

If you’re going to run in the summer, you’re going to have to accept that a lot of your miles are going to be slower than you’re used to. Consider this a blesssing in disguise: you’re getting the same aerobic benefit for a slower pace, and therefore less impact on the body. ALSO, you’re spending more time on your feet when you slow down your easy runs, which is an additional benefit.

Some days you’ll probably feel good enough to run as fast as you would on a brisk November morning. But if it’s especially hot, or especially humid, or for some reason you have to fit your mileage in mid-day, then you’re best served just forgetting about mileage and pace all together and just saying “I’m gonna go run for X minutes and then I am done and I am drinking a coffee³/beer⁴/chocolate milk⁵.”

Speaking of midday runs,

Get Your Run Done in the Early Morning

This gets easier when you have a job, but it never really gets easy. When necessity dictates that it’s 6:30 AM or it’s nothing, I can (usually) drag myself out there, kicking and screaming but running nonetheless. What I’ve quickly realized, bellyaching aside, is that an early run is both

a) a better experience, temp-wise

and b) setting myself for a much better day in literally every capacity.

I’m pretty bad at adhering to my own advice here, as anyone who follows me on Strava will tell you. I’m working on it though! One hack for dragging yourself out earlier (and really just a general running hack) is to agree to meet friends out there early. It’s easy to let yourself down, it’s harder to let your buddies down.

In fact, probably the best Summer training advice out there is to

Find Training Partners

I’m desperately working on this one myself (I’m serious — if you live in the Richmond area and don’t mind early mornings, DM me). Summer training is hard and often monotonous. It is infinitely more so alone (trust me).

Summer also represents an opportunity to run with folks you might not otherwise get to. Maybe your high school buddies have started running, and they need a shaman to show them all the cool routes. Maybe some people from other clubs are studying/working in your town for the summer and need training partners. Get creative, put yourself out there.

If anyone is in search of training partners where you are, I encourage you to use the comment section of this post as a means to find training partners. Drop your name, your city, your club, etc. And again, if you’re in the Richmond area and like 9’ pace, PLEASE drop me a line.

That’s about what I’ve got this week. I know it’s the evening, but I’ve gotta go get some miles in. See ya next week!

Shout out to Dean last week for throwing me a couple bucks! It is always, always appreciated.

1. (based on a true story)

2. But not this summer — thanks Coach!

3. Morning run

4. Evening run

5. Anytime, baby