So how many of you are braving a run in this heat? Well, for England this is hot hot hot – for northern England this is insane. How do those of you who live in hot countries ever do any running? I’m not complaining about the weather, don’t get me wrong, I like hot but I do prefer it when I don’t actually have to do anything much!
Yesterday was the 30th June and that meant the start of our marathon training programme. That means it is 28 weeks to the Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend. Oh my goodness – 28 weeks! Given the heat the sensible thing would have been to give running a miss and perhaps walk instead or to at least postpone the run until later on in the evening when it got a bit cooler (although I don’t remember it getting cooler!). But no, we went at about 5pm. The first run of the programme is a 45 minute run. In fact all the runs during the week are 45 minutes.There is then a distance run at the weekend, 3-5 mile one weekend and a long run the next – the mileage for the long runs builds up by 2 miles every other weekend.
We are continuing to follow the run/walk approach to running – sort of adapted a bit from Jeff Galloway who has also created the training programmes for runDisney.Our run/walk intervals are still at 2 minutes running and 30 seconds walking but we did talk about increasing the running bit soon. Not in this heat though. So off we toddled in the heat. We probably started at fairly strong pace for us but that didn’t last long, even in the shade it was a struggle. In the sun I just couldn’t breathe. We kept going though and on a few runs started walking up to 15 seconds earlier. We got to the end. The pace was 13.23 minutes per mile so actually not that bad given that it was so hot and we went for 10 minutes longer than we have done on our weekly runs before.
I didn’t hate that run, I quite enjoyed it, I just found it very very very hard. I am excited to have ticked off the first run of the training programme. It feels like we’re in the game now. Next one is tomorrow, the forecast suggests a slightly cooler day. I’d like that!
really (not) a runner 
We used to live on the coast just east of Orlando. Winters can be quite warm, so maybe this warm weather training is fortuitous?
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You are absolutely right. It is all good to have in the memory bank! We have been to Disney World 3 times before, each time in January – once it was pleasantly warm, once it was colder in Florida than in Alaska for the week we were there and once it was consistently over 80 degrees. I wonder what ‘normal’ is in Orlando? I am hoping for cool mornings warming up through the day – that way we can get the bulk of the marathon out of the way before it gets too hot but I will still get the warm and sun I’ll probably crave in January.
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I did a ‘run’ this morning at 7 and it was bearable. We have nice sea breezes down here and of course it’s always lovely watching the waves. Very slow though. 6km took over 40 minutes. But I’m not training so I only do a couple a week. Just to remind myself how much I hate it :o)
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I went yesterday at 7:30am and it was ridiculously hot already! I only managed just over a mile before I gave up, so well done for doing the whole 45 minutes! We start our official Wine and Dine Half training plan next week and it’s much the same thing except the in week runs are only 30 minutes, exciting times ahead!
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The heat thing is just unbelievable – it has such an impact! I hope you find the start of the training plan as exciting as I did – there’s something about it that puts the whole challenge into focus!
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I left running until 9.30 yesterday evening here in South Wales and it was still damn hot!!! It’s even hotter tonight so I’m going to give it a miss. I’m interested in your training plan as I’m looking to build up to a half marathon so will be awaiting your posts and hopefully following a similar plan (just not in Disney I’m sad to say 😕)
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Hello – thanks for your comment. It’s always nice to know people actually read the blog! I’m not heading out today either, far too hot! Have a look at http://www.rundisney.com – there is a section on training and they have all sorts of programmes including one for a half marathon. I like the run walk training and running – it works for me mentally and I am getting fitter so I now often take walk breaks out in the second half of the run but I just see how I feel.
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