Summer 5k: Lessons from wogging July morning

photo credit: lgh75
photo credit: lgh75

This morning I went on my first outdoor morning walk/jog (what I like to call wogging) in a 5k fund raiser. I ended up being completely rushed as I stayed up late the night before and didn’t even have water.

The past two weeks I’ve been using the C25K app for Android so I’d be able to run for longer. Today I jogged 1 minute then walked 1 minute…not on a treadmill. I know that I’ll be doing my runs on trails instead of treadmills as it was much more harder. Plus, no water. I brought my family boxer on the trail as well & he was pulling me along towards the end.

I’m glad that I did this run in the morning. It was 8:00 AM and it wasn’t hot till the very end. I’m adapting to the heat as by afternoon it was 104ºF but in the morning it was 80ºF and felt intense when I was in the sun. Lucky for me most of the trail was shady under trees, mostly flat & that was part of the reason I decided to go this route. I also took advantage of water stops along the way. Afterwards, I spent several hours in a pool after a smoothie. Bliss! Wish I had taken pictures but I rarely get up at 7 AM on a Saturday so this was a great learning experience from my regular luxurious gym run.

As I keep training to be able to run a full solid 5k – outdoors – I’ll:

  • Hydrate before and DURING the run
  • Wear sunshades as the sun did come strong by 8:30 AM
  • Apply sunscreen on my face
  • Keep my runs in the morning, unless there is a heat/pollution warning
  • Wear loose clothing, my top was fitted so no breeze

Also saw these GREAT ideas for running (heck even just being at a festival) during the heat on Active.com

  1. Wear a hat with a sponge under it, take ice cubes then put them between the sponge and hat so it melts keeping you cool.
  2. Soak a snap back in water then put it in the freezer 30 minutes before going out, use an old one.
  3. ay a bandanna out in a diamond shape. Place a row of ice cubes in a horizontal line, just below one tip of the bandanna. Then roll it up ‘like a burrito,’ and tie it around your neck.”

Perfect! Over all a rough start but very much glad to have completed this.

Hope to do another 5k come August. Are you planning on doing a race in heat soon?

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