For how Texas summers typically go, the heat hasn’t been that bad! It has only topped 100 degrees a few times which means there is actually some green to our grass. Our lawn mostly gets the moisture from my sweat after a run or mowing the grass but hey, green is green.

My summer mileage has been a bit lower in July more so due to injury prevention than the heat. Most of the runs have been pretty tough though when the humidity is often over 80% during the morning time. Even at 5 a.m., the weather beats you down. Or builds character like my Dad says but for me, it beats me down. You either get fried in the afternoon avoiding the humidity or challenge it in the morning. Now I see why people love California weather.

Being the frugal average runner that I am, I was content or at least found acceptance to run through the heat all the summer. The AC is broken in my car so I just considered it another way to heat adapt. Or it was like a Catholic penance, you just know you got to power through it (Father Peter gave some tough ones).

My wife on the other hand, is not a fan of running in the heat. She is what we call a normal person with working AC in her car as well as understanding there are more pleasant ways to run. Plus she’s pretty cool too.

Now, she hadn’t participated in my summer sweat slogs but we both signed up for another half marathon/marathon attempt for the end of the year! Woohoo for the Irving Texas Frost Marathon! It meant that it was time to get on the training wagon. It would be late December and a good way to lose weight before my annual tradition of putting on the Christmas pounds.

So what does signing up for this new event mean for me? It looks like we now have a Planet Fitness membership. It was the cheapest treadmill in an AC setting outside of breaking into my neighbor’s house. Plus, there is one only a mile from our house so we can’t really complain about traffic. We did our first two days of running back to back and Janel was happy to top over 25 minutes of running both times. She’s off to a great start and looking to set a personal record by running under 2:30 for the half marathon.

For me, I managed to still sweat as much as I do outside but also ran a slightly faster pace which was the first time in awhile. I’m still building up from shin pain following 30 mile weeks which means lower mileage. That didn’t stop me from smiling with the chance to run in sub 80 degree weather and humidity.

Hope everyone’s running and adventuring has been great this past week and you get the chance to train in comfortable weather. If you do happen to see someone grunting and moaning in the gym, feel free to say hello because it may be your average runner Paul!