Refreshing Fall Runs
The weather is starting to turn from pleasant warmth to a crisp coolness, indicative that fall is progressing swiftly. I ran an 8 miler recently in about 55 degree weather and it was a sensation I'm totally not used to anymore. Rather than feeling like I'm drowning in the humidity of a south-east summer, this was a feeling of excitement.
Somewhere between half a mile and a mile into my runs, I start hitting my stride. This first cool weather run of the season was no exception, but it was a far more physically interesting process than what I can remember from last year or anytime in the summer, for sure. The slow ramping up of my body's systems and adrenaline was kind of wild. I felt, at the half mile mark, that my body realized what I was about to put it through and began to adjust. Three quarters of a mile in and I could feel my hairs on the back of my neck at attention and my shoulders tingled with the rush of adrenaline. Sweat formed, but rather than feeling as though I was only collecting the surrounding dampness, this was a refreshing normalization, cooling my body as I rounded into the end of the first mile.
Often, this bodily adaptation in the first mile is one of the hardest parts of the run, particularly shorter ones, but this time it was different. It energized me for the rest of the run and helped me to get into my rhythm sooner. That helps a lot when I kick my pace up after warming up the first mile or so. The human body is weird and adaptable so it can be fascinating to experience the different physical reactions to a temperature change that is relatively slight, in the grand scheme of things.