Humid, but not too hot

I feel like I have more trouble with my asthma when I pace slower. I'm not sure whether this is psychosomatic or coincidental... it was also humid as all-get-out today, so that may have played a role. I seem to be much more conscious of my heart rate monitor (ie: it feels too tight and constricting) when my asthma is acting up. I didn't need to take any meds today, but I definitely felt "tight". Oddly, I felt the most constriction when my HR was in the 135-145 range and less when I was 145+. Again, may be psychosomatic.

So the run was good. I ran the big hill at the north side of the park, it felt good to run up at that point, my arms and back wanted to change position. Good excuse to do so.

I ran backwards at the bottom of the museum mile. This was the first time I had ever done that, and I was by myself, which made it a little tricky. I ran along the white line so that I wasn't veering into anyone's space. When I turned back around, my heart rate had soared into the 160s, which I wasn't expecting. I did sideways drills (grapevine) at around 87th Street on the west side for 30s each side... this also raised my heart rate unexpectedly. Finally, after a short cut across the top of the Sheep Meadow and back, I skipped for two minutes to end my 77 minute run. I was expecting this to cool me down, as it was at the end of the run, but it actually brought my HR to the peak of the entire workout. I will have to consider these drills and their effects... I'm not sure yet how to digest the data.

Anyway, I felt generally good about this workout. I was thinking a lot about triathlon while I ran, as this is just a little under a mile more than the distance of the last leg of an Oly tri. I tried to think about what it felt like to run for that long and what it would feel like to run that distance after a half hour plus in the water and nearly two hours on the bike. I think that if I let myself find my legs (re: warm up) into the run and then gradually increase my pace to a sub 10' mile I'll be happy with the run. I can definitely do that. That will be my goal.

I'm getting up bright and early to volunteer for the New York Tri tomorrow. Got my shirt and credentials today. Hoping the shirt doesn't dye my skin smurf blue after standing in the rain for six hours. Why do I insist on volunteering for rainy triathlons?