Quote Originally Posted by emily_in_nc View Post
Thanks for the encouragement, Oakleaf! Where are you that it has been so hot and humid?

I did another 5K at the track today and beat my previous time by almost a minute. This time my three miles were 10:22, 10:01, and 9:47, in that order. It is really hot & humid here most mornings, and the sun was out full-strength, so I think I could do a bit better in a cooler locale. Because of the heat, I am not sure how much I'll be able to increase my distance, but I am going to keep up a schedule of a couple of 5K runs per week (I do yoga or a bike ride the other mornings) as long as I can tolerate the climate. Perhaps it will get easier the more I acclimate?
If you want to increase your distance you'll likely need to slow down. I train in zone 3 on my heart rate monitor as I'm building up to 10k, which means i am only training at an 11 min mile or slower. It took me a while to get used to, because most of its are used to the mindset that if we aren't pushing ourselves to moderate pain we aren't going to see progress. Next month i plan on starting a mix of endurance runs, speed intervals, and tempo runs. For now, it's slow and steady