Drying out

Sunday was a long day. I started out at 7 am with a hard 9 mile run followed by two hours of picking up trash with the running club along the Horsetooth Half Marathon course.

After the trash pickup I went to the sauna but didn't feel so great. Usually it takes me almost 10 minutes to start pouring sweat but I started sweating as soon as I got in there. My heart rate went up to about 130, it never goes that high when I'm just sitting there. I was having a hard time tolerating the heat. I only did 22 minutes.

I went home and slept for two hours and then got a call about work, we were short on staff that night and they wanted to know if I could work a night shift. I had my nap, and I felt like I was just waiting around for work on Monday morning, so I might as well get it done. Plus a little extra pay for short notice and night shift can only help my Badwater budget.

When I got into work, I started feeling hot again. I didn't feel sick but I was burning up! I usually wear a long sleeved shirt under my scrub top, but I couldn't do it. I went to work dressed for summer and I was warm all night.

I hope I wasn't having hot flashes! At my age, anything is possible. I can't imagine having a hot flash in the sauna though. I hope I don't have any at Badwater!

My skin is so dry these days. I always have to put a ton of lotion on my hands since I wash them so much, but when I touched my hair after my last sauna session, I couldn't believe how dry my hair was! I'm sure it's the sauna. It never occurred to me that just a few minutes in the dry heat of the sauna would dry out my hair and skin so much. I'll have to start using more conditioner on my hair, or doing something to protect it.

Monday morning when I got off work at 7:30 it was raining and snowing. Good sleeping weather. It has been so cold and wet this spring so far. Tonight it's raining again. I got my run in this morning before all the rain started. I froze throughout my entire run, even though I had layers on. Maybe this sauna training is starting to work.

I worked my regular day shift on Tuesday but I got off work early since it was slow, so I ran 10 miles hard on Horsetooth. I had a cold headwind coming up the hills as I ran south, and I managed to run a fast pace in the conditions. This morning I did 20 miles and pushed the pace again but after about 14 miles I was feeling it. I mixed in some fast walking and took the girls for a run for the last few miles.

This afternoon I needed to get blood drawn for my thyroid check so I went over to the lab, and they had to poke me four times before they got any blood! I must have been dehydrated. Fortunately they only needed to take one tube of blood. I hate it when they take a lot of blood, I need those red blood cells! My slow ultra muscles need all the oxygen they can get.

After the lab I knew I needed to drink plenty of water in the sauna, and I drank about a gallon of electrolyte mix and water. I felt pretty good in there today. I did 35 minutes at 160 degrees and no hot flashes!

The weather is supposed to be cold and wet tomorrow and I need to get 15 miles in. I will probably have to wear about 4 layers to deal with the cold. I'm starting to wonder if we'll ever have any warm days again, 95 degrees would be perfect, but I'd settle for 60 at this point. The dry frozen trails are turning to mud. Now I'll have to wait for them to dry out.

Next weekend is the 50 mile race in Fruita. Dry, hot weather, please!