Too Hot to Handle

The joys of traveling and training ...

Woke up in chilly Ft. Smith, Arkansas this morning on business and decided not to tempt fate by running outside in the dark in an unfamiliar area, especially when ice was a possibility.

I opted instead for the hotel "gym", a room just large enough for two old school treadmills, an elliptical, a bench with free weights and a recumbent bike. There was not room for much of anything else, including walking around room. My hotel room itself was definitely larger than this cubicle of a hotel gym. Sadly, this hotel actually had better facilities than the hotel I stayed at last week ...

There was an old school big box TV mounted on the wall on a news station, but no volume, so I ran with tunes and decided to make the best of it. What I didn't bargain for was the heat. There was no fan in the room and the heat must have been on high because I was drenched within a mile and my heart rate was screaming. It wasn't as hot a Bikram yoga session, but you are also not running during yoga, so I will call it a tie.

I was spent after 5 miles and had to take 15 minutes to cool down before getting in the shower. It was definitely not my finest run, but it is in the books and I stayed the course despite wanting to quit at the halfway point. Score 1 for winning the mental challenge. Can I count that as heat training for IMTX?