It is officially autumn on the calendar. For most of the country, that means much cooler weather and time to wear light jackets. The leaves in the Northeast are turning into multiple bright colors and will start falling soon. In Colorado, there is snow on the ground and roads are being closed. In North Dakota, there has been a record number of tornadoes, with 80 so far this year. Here in Central Texas, it is still hot, with a promise from weather forecasters to be a little less hot but still in the upper 80s and lower 90s on the thermometer. The leaves are starting to fall, not because of cooler temperatures, but because of heat and lack of rain. For runners, the official cool fall is still a couple of months away.
Runners still have to put their daily run in under what the rest of the country calls excessive heat. I was looking over old logbooks of my runs, and I had some of the most runs in this part of the year. This is when you start putting in extra miles to the long run because marathon season is just around the corner. I usually never went below six miles as a long run, and after one year of building up from that number, I never went below 10 miles. The key to running long runs in hot weather is to have water stops every three miles and select a course that is “cooler.”
One of my favorite runs was a three-mile run along the River Walk. I would run down to the Cock House, get on the trail along the river, and head toward the Little League fields. Running beside the river in the shade of the trees made for a slightly cooler temperature. The loop around the park behind the Little League fields had lots of shade cover from the trees, and the river was next to the trail. Not only was it slightly cooler, but it was a very scenic and relaxing run on a hot day.
