Too darn hot

I'd promised myself a run round the lakes today. My jaunts to Morton are only ever mile-there-mile-back, and the lakes give me the chance to pace out in half-mile circuits what I can manage. It's been beautiful all day, so that was promising...

By the time I got to the lakes after finishing the work I had to do, it had clouded over. And got very, very hot indeed. I used the smaller lake - which by timing an initial walking circuit, I reckon is one-third of a mile, as against the half-mile of the larger lake - for one x walk, 2 x jog (5 minutes and 2 x 4 minutes respectively). So far, so good - one mile done.

Then I started to run round the larger lake, with the intention of keeping going as long as I could. That hamstring is still not comfortable - not exactly painful, but distracting; and whilst my HR was reasonable (stayed under 160 bpm, which for a steady 10 minute mile isn't too bad), the breathing was heavy - and I hate to think what the pollen count was. I managed three continuous circuits - each one coming in at around 4'30"-4'45"; but then I had to stop for water (which was in the car) and to get my breath back. I started off again, but after one more circuit I had absolutely had it; no way could I do any more.

I was a bit disappointed, as I really had wanted to see if I could manage 6 circuits on the trot - which would've been pretty close to 5 km. However, I suppose I did do about that in the whole session, with only a couple of breaks, and considering the weather that wasn't too bad.

Incidentally, as I drove home again, I was struck by the large amount of seed heads that seemed to be flying towards the car - they looked like dandelion clocks. No wonder the throat felt as though it was closing up!

I shall keep on trying...